


Phantom SEES

by 1nk1f1ed



Category: Persona 3, Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Canonical Character Death, Character Death, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, Metaverse (Persona 5), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Persona 3 Spoilers, Persona 5 Spoilers, Persona 5: The Royal Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:15:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 28,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26632714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1nk1f1ed/pseuds/1nk1f1ed
Summary: Butterflies, large noses, and little boys hint of the distortion in the world leading to the world's impending death. Minato's not sure whether he should be more afraid of humanity, Death itself, or the strange messengers listed above.No matter where the fear lies, destiny hasn't really given him a choice but to rebel when he's now a prisoner of fate. If he's going to be a prisoner in his own heart for crimes he didn't commit he might as well start committing some.And if committing crimes against society’s distortion and his own fate entails working with a strange group of misfit kids as phantom thieves and spending his time with a mysterious scarfed boy then maybe it won’t be so bad.---(This is a destiny shift where the character's from Persona 3 under go a similar story to Persona 5: The Royal.)Chapter every Friday
Relationships: Arisato Minato & Mochizuki Ryoji, Arisato Minato/Mochizuki Ryoji, Mochizuki Ryoji & Yuuki Makoto, Mochizuki Ryoji/Persona 3 Protagonist, Mochizuki Ryoji/Yuuki Makoto
Comments: 38
Kudos: 41





	1. Starting Act

Silhouettes of the surroundings dance atop and on stone walls. The light distortion reflect strange green shades that stretch into the darkening atmosphere that surrounds the towering building in focus of it all. The castle is large and twisted, different parts jutted out in odd directions, the structure seemed impossible and every architect's nightmare.

The flashy scene was interrupted by a shadowed figure bursting through a glass stained window and landing on the stone edged ledge of the castle. The colored glass gave a shining contrast in coloring as the green and golden light changed to rainbow colors through the falling shards.

> “I can’t tell if that was showing off or not…”

> “Our leader doesn’t seem like the type to show off huh?”

The figure was followed by the shuffling of golden illuminated knights that could be seen through every window and up every staircase.

> “In coming, please be careful!”

> “Too many for him to fight himself, escape is recommended.”

A rough voice called, “He’s that way!” and with the sudden recognition of their presence the silhouette was on the move again. The figure followed the swaying darkness of the castle, jumping from ledge to ledge.

> “I don’t think the roof ledges were a safe choice of escape… But it succeeded in its purpose.”

> “It works well though doesn’t it? Caught everyone’s attention.”

Like spotlights the illumination of the area seemed to zone into the figure, it seemed that the figure had even gotten the attention of the castle itself.

With all eyes and even lack there of on them a smirk reached the face of the silhouette. The ledges of the castle led upwards in a constant spiral. Not a proper escape route, but with the knights not far below and behind the figure had no choice but to ascend.

> “I can’t help but feel bad for splitting up like that. He’s all on his own…”

> “ _Whimper_ ”

The ledges ended at the top. A roof that loomed over the dark city bellow, yet loomed over by a larger yellow moon. The footsteps of golden boots on stone ground got even louder. The phantom halted at the very edge of the roof, only giving the large drop a glance before turning to face the collecting group of knights.

For the first time the figure was seen clearly through tainted moon light. The male wore a dark colored thief outfit. The style was old fashioned and fancy with several white flairs and a tailcoat. Silver armored cuffs covered his figure in multiple places for protection but it not enough to slow down movement. The shades of blue and white made it easily noticeable of the splashes of yellow that adorned several spots in the outfit. From a bow tie to the bow wrapped tightly around his wrist. Though the most notable eye drawing detail despite it’s matching color must've been the mask. A silver lined mask that hides the top half of the wearer's face.

> “Huh? He’s surrounded!”

> “RQ what are you doing?”

> “Don’t do anything reckless!”

> “No sudden movements you’ve been caught.” A knight ordered lifting its sword.

A smirk creeped itself on the phantom thief’s face. Without removing his eyes from the knights he began to fall backwards. The knights could be heard panickily yelling orders and running to the edge of the castle, but it was too late. The figure was already plummeting backwards down the towering castle, he gave the knights a triumphant look. Though falling from a height that most definitely meant death.

> “You’ve got to be kidding me!”

> “Did he even think this through?”

> “Falling from that distance… concludes in imminent death.”

Continued shouts and even barking could be heard through the earpiece in the thief's ear but their calls were ignored and the thief reached to their earpiece to turn a knob. The calls of his teammates were replaced with music far too calming for the situation. He turned himself to face the incoming ground. Even with the approaching doom confidence showed beneath the mask.

Several yards before meeting the ground the thief flashed with a blinding blue light. Black mist surrounded his body allowing him to float gracefully to the ground. The flash was bright enough to alert any surrounding knights but the thief had survived the fall. Behind the thief the ghostly form of death appeared whose arms loosely held the thief.

“I’m sorry...” A light voice whispered in melancholic tone. Despite the thief's earpiece playing at full volume the whisper could be heard clearly over the music. “I’m sorry it had to be this way.”

The gray eyes of the thief trailed the disappearing mist and for a moment he swore he saw the end of yellow fabric and the wing of a butterfly.

When the mist was entirely gone the thief turned to continue their escape when a large spotlight blinded him. Once he glanced under his arm that instinctively went up to protect his eyes from the flash, a crowd of policemen sieged forward. The thief didn’t even have a moment to look shocked or flinch before he was pinned to the ground.

Different voices could be heard from the surrounding officers.

“Didn’t expect to find some kid..” The deep voice of an important officer sighed. “You have someone close to thank for this. It seems you’ve been ratted out.” The officer holding his head to the ground stated, before grabbing him by a handful of blue hair and shoving him harder to the ground.

That was all it took for the music to stop and everything to go black.

* * *

Deep under a police department housed a questioning facility, on the fairest edge of the last hall there was a room. The room was empty aside from a boy, a chair, and empty syringes that littered the floor. The boy’s indigo hair drooped over his face, more so than usual achieving the covering of both his eyes. Shades of purple could be seen on the edges of his unhidden cheek and leading down his neck. The boy couldn’t be sure but it had been about 4 hours since his arrival. He’d been out for most of it.

“Guess the drugs were too strong…” Two men entered; one an officer apparent from the blue suit and gun, the second was a man in a black suit. “Wake up.” Ordered the suited man, his order was unanswered by the boy and the silent walls. “Wake him up!” The man ordered harsher this time directed at the officer beside him. Water met the face of the teen and in response the boy coughed and wheezed definitely awake this time. “This kid sleeps way too much.”

The smaller boy glanced around the room quickly before straining against the cuffs on his wrists. His head lolled down and he struggled to keep his eyes open. Haze clouded the boy's tired eyes which most likely came from a mix of pain, exhaustion, and a cocktail of drugs.

“What did I just say?” The man in the black suit kicked the leg of the chair causing the teen and the chair to collapse to the ground. The boy let out a pained sound before falling into a short coughing fit.

Before he could fully recover from the initial shock a shoe met his head. “Cooperate. Or we’ll inject more shots.” He sneered, rubbing the heel of his shoe into the dark sweat matted hair.

The boy closed his eyes in pain, only opening them to look towards the empty wall of the room. Had he seen a butterfly just then? What color was it? Why did the color of it even matter, when it shouldn’t even be in here? For some reason the teen couldn’t remember.

The suited man followed the gaze. “What? See a ghost?” The man took a handful of blue hair and tugged the boy’s head close enough that they were facing each other. “Pay attention.”

…

There was silence following and the men slammed the boy’s head down before standing and kicking him in a fit of rage. “I said pay attention! No ghost can save you.” The suited man grabbed a clipboard from the officer and read from it. “Obstruction of justice, blackmail, defamation, destruction of property, research, and evidence…” The man tapped the clipboard with his finger. “Murder too? To think all those crimes were led by such a dainty little boy.” The man moved closer facing the boy with a sickening grin. “You seemed to be enjoying it quite a bit too.”

Was he enjoying it? Exactly what was he enjoying? Everything just came up as a hazy mess.

The suited man motioned the officer who nodded in reply before moving towards the battered teen and removing the cuffs. The teen quickly rubbed the raw bruised skin. The lines from the cuffs stung and seemed like they’d be a semi permanent addition to his wrists for a while.

A contract was shoved into his face interrupting the short recovery moment. “Sign. It’s a confession for your crimes.”

…

The boy remained silent, shutting his eyes again. In an attempt to either ignore the contract or drift into sleep again the likely answer was both. “I see… We need a hand for the signature but…” There was a sudden pain in the teens left shoulder as he was pulled off the ground by his arm. “You only need one hand to sign dontcha?” The man shoved the boy to the ground and once again pushed the document towards the teen.

This time there wasn’t any hesitation, the blue haired boy took the clipboard and reached for the pen. As the boy’s hand took hold of the pen the man refused to let go, instead leaning even closer. “Don’t expect to leave here without a few new experiences. One must take full responsibility for their actions after all.”

When the man finally let go of the pen and the teen glanced over the contract. Everything was too hazy to read. Should he be concerned about being able to sign his name correctly?

With as much effort as possible the boy wrote; Minato Arisato.

Pleased with just that for now the men snatched the contact and left the room, but not before casting Minato a dark grin. “We’ll talk again later.” The officer followed close behind not sparing a moment to look back. 

The door slammed loudly behind them and Minato was left alone with his thoughts or lack thereof.

...

He brought his hand to his head, everything hurt. But the worst thing was the numbness he felt from losing something. A lot of his memories not only of the last few hours but the past were hazy. Scattered in pieces or just entirely missing. No matter how hard he thought his head just began to hurt more and more. Just what kind of drugs did they put into him exactly?

“Can’t remember? I know the feeling.”

The sudden voice in the quiet room caused Minato to turn immediately to its source. His grey eyes met deep swirling pools of blue. Eyes that stared back at Minato with friendliness.

The alluring eyes belonged to a young boy, younger than Minato, who wore strange black and white clothing which looked far too much like a prisoner outfit. When Minato was able to stop hyper focusing on the boy's eyes he noticed a small birthmark under one, somehow that gave him the most comfort perhaps an imperfection on such a perfectly strange child. A blue butterfly had mounted itself onto the boy’s shoulder, flapping its wings as if showing off its freedom, something Minato didn’t have at the moment.

Minato didn’t question the strange appearance, which was strange in and of itself. Instead he couldn’t help but feel disappointed and a tad bit uncomfortable. Somehow the appearance didn’t seem strange in all aspects but perhaps location? Everything seemed too out of place when compared to the boy, as if it was the world that didn’t fit in. The boy was somehow so wrong but right at the same time.

The silence between the two was broken by the child's laughter. “What’s wrong? Were you expecting someone else?” He sat himself in the abandoned chair and swung his legs. “I wonder who you could’ve been expecting instead of me…” His voice sounded a little hurt at the end yet he kept a calm smile.

The boy relished the silent for a few moments before speaking again. He seemed perfectly fine holding the conversation by himself. “I can’t help but empathize with you. I too lost my memories. But I’d never forget you, the dearest person to me.” He smiled sweetly, almost too sweetly. “You didn’t forget me did you?” Silence answered the question and the boy sighed. “Well I’ll just remind you since we're close, friends even. My name is Pharos and you can trust me."

Minato was unable to validate whether or not him and Pharos were friends. The fact Pharos needed to tell Minato he could be trusted sent up some red flags. Minato couldn’t remember, but the familiarity of Pharos and his blue eyes that Minato couldn’t stop staring into took away any responsible doubt towards the little boy.

“You’ve met such a terrible fate of betrayal… and only more awaits you if you continue.” The blue butterfly lifted into the air with a quick flap of its wings and floated towards Minato. It drifted just out of his reach in a taunting manner. “Since we’re friends and friends give each other gifts. I’ll offer you something.” Minato’s eyes followed the butterfly with some sort of infatuation. Pharos didn’t seem to mind and kept speaking. “I’ll give, if you accept, an escape from your punishment. You won’t need to suffer through rehabilitation anymore."

He reached his hand out and the butterfly returned to him. Minato returned to looking at Pharos’ eyes, which had only gotten increasingly creepier but were still if not more just as attention drawing. “As a friend my gift would be your death.” The normacy in Pharos’ voice only made it all the more creepy. The air seemed to freeze up, the room a new shade of green with red dripping from its seams. Even the companion butterfly seemed to shiver from the change. “It would end so quickly and none of your teammates would even know it happened. Everything would be forgotten and forgiven.”

Minato, other than looking around the room, didn’t show any sort of visible reaction to the offer or change in setting. Though he noted that; oh now the world fit the boy just fine, yes now everything seemed normal. He stared at Pharos blankly for a long while. It was difficult to tell if he was considering or just in shock.

“Of course if you need time to think I can give you some time. Perhaps until the next-”

“No.” Minato spoke up for the first time. Pharos stopped mid sentence and his smile dropped immediately, replacing it with a mix of emotions dominated with confusion before deciding on disappointment. He pouted childishly and opened his mouth to protest but caught himself. The first real emotion the boy had other than such uncomfortable friendliness gave Minato a feeling of accomplishment. Like the birthmark Pharos did have qualities that made him seem human even if only a little bit.

“I don’t get it…” His pained expression almost made Minato want to apologize, almost. “I’m your friend aren’t I, why won’t you accept my gift? You were betrayed by someone close to you, your teammates are in danger, you even more so. All that lays ahead is pain. It’s useless to rebel against it.”

Minato didn’t want to have to explain to the boy who seemed to be having his own kind of fit. Maybe at one point Minato would have accepted that offer but now he was firm in his decision. “Don’t you already know why?” Minato finally asked a question himself. All the questioning he’d been getting was kind of old now.

Pharos didn’t respond to the question. He shook his head in doubt before starting up again. “I have an idea. Your memories are gone right? That must be why you won’t accept me.” Minato wasn’t sure when this became about accepting Pharos rather than his offer but he didn’t ask. “How about I help you remember your pain you went through up until this point.”

Pharos spread his arms as if he was going to hug Minato. This motion released the blue butterfly which fluttered delicately onto Minato’s nose. As soon as the butterfly landed the world began to whiteout. Minato didn’t resist the falling feeling, instead his mind drifted to the thought that the butterfly was finally in his reach, he didn’t touch it though. The last thing he could hear was Pharos. 

“Yes surely remembering will make him accept… Yes… For now, goodbye for now my dearest.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading. The beginning will be the most like Persona 5 but I promise the plot will be much different from 5 and even 3. It's a mix of both but I've added in some huge differences. I hope that it's already noticeable that there's some huge differences.


	2. Act I Part I

In the inky darkness, a dreamless sleep, the fluttering of wings broke through the black silence. Two pairs of wings to be exact. One yellow and one blue, both trailed intertwining sparkles of opposite shades. Minato recognized them both, the blue had been the one accompanying Pharos; a strange boy who’d claim to be his friend. The yellow he wasn’t quite sure where he recognized that one from, when he thought about it he could only feel the hole his lost memories left. The butterflies danced around one another in a spiral as they danced around Minato in an even larger one.

“You are held captive.” A feminine voice calls and somehow Minato decides this is the voice of the blue one.

“A prisoner of a fate to a future who’s end seems unavoidable.” This time a male voice assigned to the yellow butterfly. It seemed they were speaking in turns.

“What an unjust game. I’d say your chance of winning is slim to none.” Despite being a butterfly it seemed almost teasing in it’s statements. Minato thought it was strange that bugs could express personalities but then again they had voices which was even more strange than his first thought.

“But if we are here now then there must be a way..” The second voice was much more timid and honest with its responses. The blue butterfly flew too close to the yellow who shied away. The blue seemed too focused on getting in the way of the yellow’s path to speak, the yellow winged bug took this as an opportunity to speak again. “I ask that you overcome any game and save the world.”

Seemingly upset with its stolen opportunity to speak, the blue butterfly intercepted the delicate trail of the yellow’s. A fight between butterflies seemed far too delicate of a battle, it was more like they were playing, like lovers. No, Minato corrected, like siblings. Blue wings fluttered close to Minato’s face nearly brushing against his eyelashes. “Victory can only be achieved through the lost memories of your bonds, the truth you all found. But they’re lost, are they not?”

“I beg of you to remember, for the sake of the future for the world and yourself. Bring yourself back to the day this game started a year ago.” The yellow butterfly floated close to the other. “Remember…”

And with that they gave way to something that Minato could only compare to pixy dust as they suddenly changed course in different directions.

“Tha nk y o u.. . “

* * *

“Thank you for riding with us today.”

The voice coming through the old speakers was hardly hearable through the constant ricketing from the train and the bustling talk of people situated in the small train car. A certainly rough, but not rough enough to be troubling to other passengers, train bump nudged a small boy awake.

“We will be arriving in Shibuya shortly.”

Slowly and stubbornly rousing from his sleep he took quick note of the voice’s announcement. Shibya was next and that was his stop. It was just like him to sleep through his stop, though he found that fate would have it he didn’t miss this one. Maybe he wouldn’t have minded the extra sleep and missing his stop.

“This is the last stop for this line. Please get off for subway transfer at the next and final stop.”

Maybe not, Minato sighed and brushed away some stray hair in a small act of annoyance, not towards the hair or even the ending subway line, just because he was in the mood to be in an annoyed mood.

Small memories flashed through his mind, the reason he was on this train to be annoyed in the first place. The funeral of his parents and the hushed whispers of his family, it came in bits and pieces, all relevant to be remembered but not enough to be entire or assigned at the source of the voice.

“It was a tragedy.”

“A heard he’s a cursed child!”

“The deaths were so mysterious.”

“Are they being covered up?”

“No one will accept him into their family.”

“Hear orphanages don’t want him either.”

“He must be a delinquent.”

“I didn’t know the Kirijo group had an orphan program.”

The outreached hand of a strange woman… no.. the outreached hand of a man in a white coat.

“How about you come with me. I’ve heard you’ve had a hard past.”

Minato narrowed his eyes. A hard past indeed, fitting for what seemed like a death plagued child. Death seemed to follow Minato from home to home, orphanage to orphanage. Even if it wasn’t his fault and just coincidences that just happened to be near him he was always to blame. Things stuck, titles mattered, the name cursed child just happened to be his.

Not that it was relevant now.

A voice broke the boy from his thoughts. “What are you for real?” A young girl, definitely the type to be into gossip. Minato looked over to see two girls in matching uniforms engaging in a loud conversation. “A mental shutdown?”

“It’s the truth! Scary isn’t it? Maybe I’ll get to see one myself! That’ll prove it.” The conversation drifted off into jokes and quieter giggles. It seemed even a topic with such a morbid title was not important enough to be joked about. That or it was the insensitivity of not being involved.

Minato himself hadn’t heard of mental shutdowns before so he himself decided he wasn’t involved and shouldn’t bother either.

The train made its final stop at Shibuya and the announcement was entirely lost to ears as people made their ways noisily to the door of the train. Minato was used to being shoved around but this was at a whole new level. He was glad it was all bustle and none of the shoves or pushes were intentional, or at least that’s what he told himself.

Finally getting out of the train hadn’t helped much. People were rushing around in different directions. It was late, close to midnight yet so many people were still using the train station. This place must never sleep…

Minato lifted his headphones to his ears in hope of tuning out the crowd. The volume he turned to the highest setting and he began to tread his way to his next destination; whoever Shuji Ikutsuki was.

Passing through the commonly known four way crossroad of Tokyo may have been impressive to others, to Minato ordinarily it would not have been. He’s traveled throughout so many places in Japan to new ‘homes’ that he’d become immune to the surprise of ‘amazing’ places. Ordinarily he would’ve continued through the crowd with his music blared on high while he continued on his way to the address that was given to him by his old orphanage. Ordinarily he wouldn’t have even stopped, ordinarily time wouldn’t have stopped either.

As he stepped into the middle most part of the square he noticed a red app had taken over a good portion of his screen. No phone use, no directions. He tapped at his phone in confusion and next his music shut out. A simple annoyance maybe the batteries died it would explain the phone’s strange behavior and the loss of music. But as he looked around he wondered if the batteries of everyone around him had died as well. He pulled his headphones on the comfy place on his neck and glanced around. Had he actually slept through his stop and remained on the train?

It was at this point midnight and the lights of the city seemed dim in comparison to the enlarged moon. Minato felt a sort of oppressing energy coming from it, like it would swallow all that was around it. The thought crossed his mind that maybe he wouldn’t mind allowing the earth and himself to be consumed in the yellow moonlight.

That was when a blue flame lit up from somewhere in the frozen crowd. It drew Minato’s attention even more so than the moon. It looked alive and dead at the same time, blue flames dancing around coffins. Inside of it all was himself with a twisted grin.

Shock struck Minato in an instant and he was snapped out of his dream-like state. People regained their lost batteries and began to walk around Minato like his was an invisible obstacle in their path. His headphone blared their music again which was loud enough to be heard even around his neck. The app was still there but not covering his entire screen.

He cursed himself for being careless, the phone for being weak, and finally the app for getting itself onto his phone. He moved it quickly to the trashing hoping it was a mis-click download and not a virus. Not that he had anything important on his phone he just wasn’t ready to part with his high scores in Soul Knight and his creatures in Pokemon. Emulators were hard to get on the phone and braggable scores were just hard to get in general. Phone backups and app account signups were for the weak.

Once the app was in the trash and out of mind, Minato continued his journey to the unknown.

The unknown happened to be Yogen-Jaya backstreets. A sketchy looking place full of small shops and a few residential homes. Minato decided that it was less sketchy then other places he’s seen and more so insignificant and empty, which to some people was the definition of sketchy.

The instructions he had been given were vague consisting of the main street he was meant to be at and a simple name. Unless this whole street was now his and the name he was given was not his new legal name it all wasn’t much help. Minato had worried since it was now well past midnight and this area was quite empty he wouldn’t find who he was looking for or even anyone to ask for directions.

Luckily people used express one day deliveries. This was lucky for Minato who needed the directions but clearly not so for the delivery man who looked well beyond his daily ‘give a shit limit’. Minato didn’t want to approach him, but he was the only one in sight so he approached anyway.

The middle aged delivery man was carrying several packages to a house on the very end of a street corner. Minato approached the man and gave him a small wave for his attention. Minato stopped to take note that the top box the man was carrying was filled with milk bottles. Seemed more like a milkman's job to deliver milk. Did milk men still even exist?

The man sighed and with his rough and tired voice spoke with impatience. “Yes? I don’t really have the time to-”

“Do milkmen still exist?” Minato suddenly interrupted, he hadn’t once looked away from the box. The question must've still been so important in his mind it came out rather than the question he first intended. The bottles clunked together when the man stopped to give Minato a strange look.

Minato finally looked up from the milk to look at the delivery man with a blank stare, who’s strange look worsened into a glare. “Are you shitting me right now? How would I know? I just bring people what they order.” Minato had been more than serious with his question, he wasn’t shitting anyone. “Though I might as well be the milkboy with all the milk this house orders.” The man mumbled the last part.

Minato nodded his head. “So they do exist…” He tried to contain his excitement for seeing a real live milkman but he just couldn’t. Minato was just brimming with excitement, clear in his blank eyes and expression.

The man rolled his eyes. “If all you were gonna do is ask me some dumb questions then scram. I have--”

“Shuji Ikutsuki.” Interrupted once again.

“Huh?”

“I need directions to the residence Shuji Ikutsuki.” Minato clarified.

“.... You mean the house right in front of us?” Indeed the mail plate of the house had been labeled Shuji Ikutsuki. The man was more than done with Minato now. He dropped the boxes and entered his truck before Minato could ask any other questions. But the boxes had perishables and the man didn’t even ring the bell to inform the customer that they had arrived.

How rude Minato concluded. Delivery people these days, so short tempered and careless with packages. Minato rang the doorbell, once, twice, thrice…. fourice? Whatever the amount was now called no one answered. Nobody seemed to be home to take Minato in and even worse the milk.

When all hope seemed lost for Minato and the milk the delivery man spoke up from the truck. “Ikutsuki is usually at his cafe.” Minato turned his head quickly to the man, he thought the man had left already, seems not. “Go tell him his stuff is here or something.” Were the last words of the delivery man before the truck left into the distance.

A cold-hearted but secretly loyal hero, Minato thought, the last of his kind; the milkman. Would Minato ever see him again? Who knows, who cares. Minato needed to find a cafe now.

The cafe was very small and well hidden, snug between an empty business building and a run down residential area. The sign read LeBlanc; coffee and curry. A strange combination, but Minato didn’t judge. He entered the cafe which was strangely still open past midnight.

There weren't any customers, no, instead one man who was on the phone. The glasses wearing man was noticeably taller than Minato and wore a buttoned up tan coat under a cafe apron, a dark turtleneck sweater was underneath all of that, implying that this must be a pretty chill man. In the temperature department not in personality. If he’d taken notice of Minato entering or the obnoxiously loud jingle the door made to alarm of his entrance he didn’t show it. Instead he was fully in conversation on the wire phone.

“Ah yes I believe I have heard of the recent train crash. It’s all over the news and caused quite the disturbance in public transportation.” His voice was kind and light despite the topic of conversation. “Similar occurrences have been happening a lot lately.”

The other half of the conversation was lost to Minato due to the phone being pressed to the man’s ear. The well dressed man nodded before continuing, “Things have been going well though for me at least. The cafe is pretty empty but it’s doing well. It is well out of trouble.” There was a long pause, Minato assumed whoever was on the other end had begun to speak for a while.

At last the man gave a hum of approval before placing the phone down, only then did he notice Minato in the doorway. There was an awkward moment of silence before Minato suddenly spoke up in a louder voice then necessary. “Milk, outside your house.”

“Huh? Who are... “ His eyes widened with surprise before quickly turning to a welcoming smile. “So that was today! You arriving I mean not the milk delivery.” He laughed while slowly pulling off his apron. “So you’re the young boy moving in; Minato Arisato. My name is Shuji Ikutsuki, I’ll be your guardian for the next year.” His smile was gentle and his voice positive. “I was told some unruly kid would be coming here, I’m guessing that would be you.” He laughed again as if it was some sort of joke. “You don’t quite look the part, ah but please follow me.”

Ikutsuki led Minato past the bathrooms of the cafe and up a narrow staircase. The end result destination was an old attic that must’ve been located just above the cafe. Boxes and trash littered the floor and walls in piles and even worse was the dust that coated every part of it all. It seemed more like a home for a raccoon then a person. Though Minato in some ways felt he fit the title of raccoon.

Ikutsuki interrupted Minato’s raccoon related thoughts with a sneeze, for a moment it seemed like his glasses would come off from the force. “Pardon me.” He apologized, pushing up his glasses. “For the sneeze and the room. It really is a dust city in here… yes a den of rabbits, dust rabbits.” He cracked an amused grin and Minato didn’t have the heart to tell him it wasn’t at all amusing.

Instead Minato glanced around with an expression that said nothing. “It’s small.” He stated, though the room was quite the opposite. It was large in fact, too much so for a single boy. It probably would have housed two high schoolers or an entire family of raccoons. It even had two messy beds (well the second more so a couch) for a second high schooler or for the raccoon dad if it ever upset its raccoon wife.

Ikutsuki rubbed the back of his head. “You may be right, for a growing boy like yourself this place is cluttered. You’ll have to bear with it I’m afraid.” He looked very apologetic. “You’ll also have to clean it on your own. I have other plans and am usually quite busy. There may even be many times where I’ll have to leave the cafe to you in the evenings. It seems like a lot of work but just think of it as payment for giving you a home here, huh? You can even keep some of the money you make. You’ll be the king of this dust kingdom.”

Minato didn’t feel like a king.

“Oh! But please don’t cause any trouble while alone. I’ll have to report you if you do and I really don’t think anyone will take you in if the Kirijo program throws you out.” This part definitely wasn’t a dust related joke, Ikutsuki was serious. “That being said, I'm fully aware of your situation. Your parents died in an accident and after traveling from home to home the Kirijo group took you in. You’ve picked up quite the delinquent name after all your past strokes of bad luck.”

Minato nearly flinched from the outwardness of it all. Ikutsiki’s smile and light voice hadn’t changed while on this topic either. It was much different than the other adults in the past who stated these facts with distaste or some sort of pity.

“Your last orphanage mentioned something of a death nearby to you. Traumatizing but your attitude towards it creeped out the staff enough to get rid of you. It’s best that you don’t bring up morbid things so commonly I do run a restaurant business after all.” Minato thought he was one to talk, this conversation hit its own level of morbid yet Ikutsuki spoke about it like it was just a passing thought. “If you behave yourself for the year you’ll be off the hook and into the sea of adulthood soon enough.”

Minato didn’t respond, he found that the dust collection on the group was worth trying to count. He reached fourice before Ikutsuki spook up again. “You start Shuijin Academy tomorrow. I won’t be able to accompany you, but please give them my thanks. Not many schools accept troubled children such as yourself.” Minato tried hard not to take the last part as an insult, he didn’t think Ikutsuki meant it as such.

“It’s easy to get to Shuijin from a few train rides and then walking. Your luggage is over near the bed.” Ikutsuki began to move towards the steps, he ran his finger over a dust covered table. “Have a nice night.” He continued down the steps chuckling over something about dust bunnies and oceans.

Minato sighed heavily enough to breathe in a dangerous amount of dust. He coughed and wiped his nose. “I guess he’s too busy to pay me any mind.”

The small bluenette gave the room a look over and the clock a glance. One o’clock, a dirty room, packed luggage, and school tomorrow. He could do it, probably…

...

As he laid in bed that night he thought of the strange death of his parents, the dead child he shared a room with at his last orphanage, and finally the family of raccoons that could be living in this attic instead of him.

He slowly faded into sleep, he guessed he needed the few hours of sleep he could get before having to wake up for school. But even if he needed it fate hated him and fate decided he wouldn’t get the sleep.

* * *

Instead he was forced out of sleep in a gasp. Minato was met with the ominous rattle of black chains and the creak of blue cushioned walls. A small toilet to his side that dripped water and the hard board beneath him in place of a bed. If this all hadn’t convinced Minato something was wrong the black and white prison clothes combined with chained handcuffs and the finishing touch of a chain and ball on his leg did. Tired haziness and curiosity did well to keep him from panicking completely, he rubbed his eyes before carefully examining what seemed to be a prison cell containing him.

He ran his hands slowly through his dark and now messy hair. This was a strange dream, he expected to dream of raccoons or perhaps the common recurring nightmare of his parents. The prison had a calming atmosphere for a moment, only a moment since the near silence was interrupted with childish chuckling.

A small boy dressed in similar attire as Minato’s own, minus the chains, approached the door to the cell from the outside. The child was about seven and had dark hair, though the most notable things about him were his strange multi shaded blue eyes and the birthmark beneath one eye. Minato responded to the boy’s appearance by moving towards the door and bringing his hands to the bars. Despite being taller and older looking Minato still felt powerless compared to the boy. Maybe it was because he was in the cell and the child was outside or maybe it was more than that.

A butterfly showed itself from behind the child's dark and curl filled hair. When Minato attempted to reach out to the blue showy butterfly he was once again made aware of the chains containing him. The butterfly gave off a taunting air and landed gracefully on the small boy’s hand.

After the landing of the butterfly the young boy turned his head to face the center of the room outside the cell. It was a large opening surrounded by other blue cells. All of which were empty. A single light illuminated the middle of it all, it’s focus on a man seated at a desk. He looked old, mostly bald aside from some long grey hair in the back of his head. His eyes were round and bulging. Gloved hands weaved together under his chin and his legs crossed smugly as he grinned condescendingly at his prisoner. Despite all the oddities the old man had the most noticeable thing of all…

“Big nose…” Minato whispered underneath his breath, causing the boy in front of him to giggle in a hushed tone.

The old man ignored this small exchange, instead opting to open up the palm of his hand and speaking through his large grin. His voice echoed throughout each cell like gusted wind. “Tickster… welcome to my Velvet Room.”

Minato’s eyes widened in more shock than he expected to express and his grip tightened on the bars of the cell door.

“So you’ve finally awoken, inmate.” The young boy's soft voice didn’t quite echo but rather emanated softly through the cell. “You don’t need to worry, your body is still fast asleep. This is just a dream.” He reassured in a calmingly creepy voice, turning around to give Minato a smile. “But I’ll warn you to be careful for that man ahead is our master.”

Minato wasn’t sure if the boy meant that the old man was both his and Minato’s master or if he was instead indicating to the butterfly resting in his hands. The bug seemed to give of more importance and influence in this strange place than Minato himself. Either way he didn’t want to get on the bad side of the man of most importance outside the cell so he didn’t ask.

“I’m delighted to make your acquaintance.” The old man’s voice was deep and powerful, uncomfortable and controlling, blank and telling. “This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter.”

The butterfly in the little boy’s hands fluttered happily. The old man continued, “It is a place only those who have entered a contract can enter. I am Igor the master of this place.” The tap of his long and gloved fingers on the desk seemed much louder than possible. “I summoned you here to discuss important matters. Something involving your life.”

The young boy shifted almost uncomfortably until he was leaning on the bars of Minato’s cell. Despite being much closer the butterfly and the boy still seemed too far out of Minato’s grasp. “Where am I?” Minato asked almost unconsciously, his curiosity had gotten the better of his fear.

“This is a surprise...” Igor brushed over the question, instead just causing even more questions in its wake. “The state of this room reflects the state of your heart. A prison from the heart? You truly are a prisoner of fate.”

Minato had just about enough of people saying such dark things with smiles.

“In the near future ruin approaches. I speak of the end of the universe, life itself.” At these choice of words the boy next to Minato shifted even more, the butterfly in his hands fluttering uncomfortably in response to the boy’s movement. “Though there is a way to avoid this. You must be rehabilitated. Rehabilitated toward freedom. That would be the only way to avoid ruin...”

“Is there the resolve within you to challenge distortion in the world?” Igor’s question remained unanswered and instead he spoke up once again. “I will observe your path to rehabilitation.”

As if taking a silent order the little stripped boy straightened himself quickly, the butterfly flying up disturbed from the movement. “I never introduced him did I?” Igor grinned wider. “That boy is Pharos. He will serve as your warden.”

Minato opened his mouth to ask for the name of the blue butterfly. Though it seemed a little strange of a question to ask so he stopped himself and moved his grey eyes to Pharos.

Pharos smiled playfully. “It will be my pleasure to serve you in your rehabilitation. I hope I become dear to you as you are to me as an inmate.”

Igor spoke up once again. “I will explain to you his role another time. Now then, it seems the moon’s light is fading… It’s almost time. Take your time to think on the purpose of this place. I know we will meet again.” With a flick of his hand bells began to ring from somewhere above the cells.

Pharos' peculiar eyes met Minato’s. “I guess our time together is up. Rest well.” The blue butterfly flew close enough to Minato’s face and he reached out quickly to grab it but he was still always too slow.

Minato fell back to sleep to wake up next in the real world. First strange prison dreams, next his first day of school.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted so badly to post this before the set date, but if I did I would post non- stop and way too fast for me to keep up with. I'm hoping as I post more chapters this will get more of a nice following of readers.
> 
> I realize that I added the shipping Ryoji x Minato tag before Ryoji even exists in the story, even in the chapters I have written now he's not really there yet. I also included a bunch of other characters in the tag that I promise will be in the story later. The beginning of this will be kind of longer just like in the game. Once things get moving there won't be every moment in the story there will be more time skips to important events as well as little moments between characters. You will get your Ryoji x Minato I promise.
> 
> I also kinda have some other stuff planned involving the P5 gang in the story. You guys can't get enough of Akechi x Akira or just P5 in general it's scary.


	3. Act I Part II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I live off of your support and comments. I read and respond to ever one and it never fails to make me smile. I hope to keep attracting more people to enjoy this mess I've created.

Minato has a strange dream, well stranger than usual.

Something about ruin and rehabilitation.

Something with butterflies and large noses.

He has no idea what it all meant.

He didn’t have time to linger on it due to the sudden realization, that at the moment what seemed far more impending and urgent than any of the warnings in his dream, was that he has school today. He hadn’t expected Ikutsuki to wake him up, yet Minato had made the mistake of not setting an alarm.

Minato quickly grabbed the student uniform and slipped it on. Rushing towards the steps he backtracked for a moment to glance in the mirror. The black dominated uniform made his blue hair stick out like a sore thumb. The red and black pants had the added addition of looking more like pajama pants to Minato then actual school pants. The jacket he hadn’t bothered spending the time buttoning up correctly, both from the time constraint and from not seeing it worth the effort. He looked a mess and in short Minato didn’t like the uniform or, he assumed, he just didn’t like himself in the uniform. He wasn’t going to admit a lot of this was contributed to the fact he refused to wear clothes in the way they were meant to be worn.

“You up?” Ikutsuki’s voice broke Minato out of his low confidence hatred for his new school uniform. Ikutsuki had called to Minato from the bottom of the attic stairs. “It’s getting sort of late, I was worried you were still asleep.”

Minato took that as a sign that he wasn’t late to school but should really get a move on unless he wanted to be. He lifted his small school bag and slung it across his shoulder before dragging himself down the stairs. Ikutsuki must’ve come to the cafe hours ago due to it being open and filled with the smell of coffee, it wasn’t a shock Minato had slept through it though there weren’t any customers.

Upon seeing Minato Ikutsuki smiled and pushed over a plate of curry, something that was totally a breakfast item. Minato didn’t complain it smelled good enough and Ikutsuki had bothered making him food. Which was something other caretakers hadn’t done in the past. As soon as Minato took a bite Ikutsuki took the opportunity to start speaking.

“I received some very specific instructions from your school, I thought I would share them with you before you leave. Unfortunately the principal didn’t see it within his time frame to meet with you himself.” No one seemed to be able to find time in their schedules for Minato since he got here. “He wanted to express the school’s reputation being very important and that allowing a troubled child such as yourself is merely an experiment. Your behavior is required for you to attend.” While Ikutsuki read a letter, presumably from Shujin, he slid a student ID across the cafe bar. 

“You will be responsible for all your actions. Welcome to the Kirijo Group’s Shijin Academy.” He flipped the letter from front to back to ensure he read all its contents. “They really are all business. Never shying away from letting you know how easily expendable you are.” Minato thought he felt malice in those words he wasn't exactly sure, it could've just been a warning towards Minato. Behave or you'll be thrown out like the expendable trash you are.

Minato felt a lot less hungry than before. He was used to being treated like a nuisance and really shouldn’t have expected the sudden interest from a large company would change that fact. His addition to the school was most likely a reputation boost. The use of the word experiment didn’t sit well with him either.

“Your school is in the Aoyama district, like I said last night it’s a couple of train rides and a short walk. I’m sure you have that all covered, today I won’t even be able to stay long at the cafe. I'm so busy.” Ikutsuki never did say what he did other than care for the cafe and for troubled children that took up so much time. Minato had the brain not to ask but if he didn’t he would’ve brought up how maybe Ikutsuki shouldn’t have taken Minato in if he didn’t have any time. Maybe he was getting a good amount of money for taking the troubled teen in. “Finish your curry and be on your way then.”

With that the one sided conversation was over. Only once Ikutsuki flipped on the TV did Minato realize he hadn’t gotten a single word in.

The TV began to speak: “Traffic for today is especially bad due to a train that derailed at Shibuya Station. The timetables for a good portion of the schedule trains will be affected-”

“Ah then it’s a good thing I didn’t decide to drive you today, traffic must be a mess.” Ikutsuki blew on a mug of coffee he must’ve made while Minato was distracted with the TV announcement. Yes, it was lucky for him but the news said it affected the trains which Minato needed to use. It would mean Minato would be doing more walking today in order to get to school. “There’s been so many accidents lately. Creepy stuff, no one can find any motives, the people just suddenly go crazy or stop all together.”

Minato finished the last of his curry and quickly stood up. He suddenly wanted very much to get to school now rather than stay in this cafe with Ikutsuki and the TV any longer. Ikutsuki got the message that Minato was ready to go. He moved in front of the door and offered Minato a smile. “I almost forgot to give you this.” He handed Minato a notebook, despite being empty it already seemed pretty old and even cheap at that. Minato took it and looked at the cover blankly.

“It’s a diary…” He paused for comedic effect and Minato didn’t find it very comedic. “To keep track of your progress, not for girls and gossip. This such as your mental state as well as for reference when you’re out and about alone. The Kirijo group would like to keep pretty close tabs on you so you’ll just have to record things from time to time for me.”

That seemed to be the last thing Ikutsuki had to talk about because he moved away from the door. His phone rang and he reached for his phone to take it. He began to speak into the phone with his always kind smile. Was the man ever not chipper Minato wondered. “So you got the packages alright at home? I do have the cafe to look after and some other work but I’ll be back to give you attention." There was a pause and Ikutsuki chucked. "Okay okay. I won't joke about that. See you soon, bye bye.”

Ikutsuki must have been telling the truth about being busy because as soon as he hung up that call he began to dial another. He gave Minato a swift glance, the implication was to leave now. Minato took no time leaving the cafe with the ring of the door's bells.

He could see clouds forming in the sky. But he didn’t think Ikutsuki wanted Minato to reenter and listen to his phone call again plus Minato had to walk for the majority of the trip because of the train accident. He needed to make up as much missed time as possible or he’d be late on his first day. He didn’t have the time or pleasure for umbrellas.

He put his headphones to his head. It was going to be a long walk to school.

* * *

As soon as Minato left the cafe Ikutsuki dialed a number that didn’t have a contact on his phone. It took exactly one ring for the other line to pick up. Ikutsuki gave his greeting before getting straight to business. His eyes remained set on the television. The news coverage was still on the train accident among the other similar accidents. “I’m sure you’ve heard of the train in Shibuya Station.” He began.  “Was it really an accident though? I assume they’ll be an attempted coverup. But they can't cover up for long that there were reports from inspectors months ago of track deterioration. The railway company clearly ignored their safety duties.”  Ikutsuki planted his hand on the bar of the empty cafe and leaned into the phone. “If you’re worried about the outcomes of these accidents I would try and expend more attention to the happenings you have already set in place. Though if you think about it this works well for you does it not? Benefit for the company and all.”

There was a short silence as Ikutsuki listened to the person on the other line. “Ah then I apologize, those sorts of affairs are out of my line, I shouldn't speak of company benefit. I am quite the export in children care and coffee though. He’ll be taken care of well.”

The phone call ended with that confirmation and Ikutsuki sighed upon looking around the cafe. “This place is really empty this morning…” He stepped towards the glass door, once close enough he noticed the flip sign facing the wrong way. He nearly fell over from his exaggerated shock. “Oh! I left it closed again!”

* * *

The one train ride Minato was blessed with was short and left a long distance from Minato to the school. Minato glanced down questioningly at his phone. He had his normal phone navigator on in order to find his way to the school but the small buzz his phone gave off alerted his attention to the device.

The first emotion he got was surprised, he hadn’t expected the pesky red eyed app that he’d removed before to be back. Maybe it was possible he’d picked up a virus from somewhere. Irritation pricked first in the back of his mind. Everything seemed to be wrong lately. No one had time for him and the only thing that seemed interested in Minato was some code meant to steal data from his phone.

He moved it to the phone trashcan again and took a mental note to use some cheap free phone scanner after school. Then he moved his attention back to in front of him that way he didn’t accidentally run into someone or get hit by a car, passersby and cars definitely didn’t have the time for him either. Getting hit by a car didn’t seem too unfortunate to him at the moment, it'd keep him from having to go to school at least.

As if the world decided to respond to Minato’s rebellious thinking a small droplet landed on Minato’s noise. The sky had looked like it was having some debate leaning towards rain since he’d left the cafe. Minato had let himself hope it wouldn’t start until he had gotten to school. Hope did nothing against Minato’s poor luck and his poor luck was currently saying rain.

Minato didn't mind being wet but he'd rather not break both his phone and headphones. So to avoid that Minato rushed to a nearby hangover of some fashion store. He doubted anyone would believe for even a second he had stopped to inspect the latest fashion trends. Minato looked like a mess who didn’t care about fashion and for the most part that was right. He convinced himself he only needed the shelter for a little bit and maybe the rain would stop soon.

He watched as other Shijin students passed by with their umbrellas. They were complaining about the rain. They had umbrellas, Minato did not yet they were complaining. Typical. Minato turned up his headphones, he didn’t mind the sound of rain, that was calming. What wasn’t calming was the noise of impatient passing cars and complaints from nearby people.

He glanced down at his phone, if there were students around that must mean he was close to the school. He was beginning to become immune to the surprise that was the red app as it was back… again. It grew to the size of about half his phone and was placed in just a way that it blocked the majority of the screen.

Minato started debating whether or not it would be worth trying to delete again or just tossing the whole phone into the busy road. Maybe that would get rid of the stupid app and the annoying feelings he’s started to build up.

Before he could come to an irrational decision a girl rushed under the same shop hangover Minato was taking shelter in.

From a quick glance she was a Shujin student but had taken the liberty of spicing up the uniform. There was a lot of pink, a pink hoodie was visible from underneath her Shunjin jacket, currently she had the hood pulled over her head. A large bright ribbon was tied around her neck; it was puffy enough to stick out even more than the light colored hoodie that reached over her waist. When looking closely short tufts of light brown hair could be seen sticking out a bit from the hoodie just under her neck. He slid down his headphones, which continued to play music quickly from his neck

Minato must have been staring for a while because after a bit of brushing some lingering rain drops from her uniform sleeve she looked over at Minato as she pulled down her hood, their eyes met for a moment. Indeed her hair was a light brown, it stuck out in sharp tufts and her eyes matched the brown color. The look in her light colored eyes reflected a defensive distrust between them. The look she gave made it seem like she expected Minato to make some rude off hand comment about her dog or something.

Minato didn’t even know if she had a dog, but from his experience people were defensive about their pet companions. Something Minato hadn’t gotten the pleasure to understand in dogless shelters meant for humans. When Minato didn’t insult her potentially existing dog she gave him a shy and almost strained smile before turning her expression back towards the rain.

The few seconds they stood alone together felt like forever.

Forever was ended when a small silver car stopped just at the edge of the sidewalk they were near. The window rolled down to reveal a grown and fit man in the driver’s seat of the car. He had dark curly hair and a long square face. It was difficult to see him in the dark of the rain clouds and the shadow of the car, but Minato got a pretty good look at them. He wore a flashy purple suited outfit from the look of the arm that waved in their direction.

“Hey,” He greeted casually and from the direction he was looking it was clear he was speaking to the girl, he’d yet to even take even a little notice in Minato yet. Typical in Minato’s life. “Caught in the rain? You know at this rate you’re going to be late.”

The girl stiffened a little bit and her smile strained even more than when she was looking at Minato. This man may have actually insulted a dog. “Oh- yeah.” She began to walk to the passenger seat side of the car without casting even a single glance back at Minato. “You better drive me to school.” Her whole demeanor changed to some cheerfully teasing attitude. “I mean it’d be horrible if my hair got ruined in the rain right? I had something I wanted to talk to you about too- about the clubs I mean.” She placed her hands on her hips.

The man laughed, he probably enjoyed the spunk from her. “Yes of course. Can’t have my favorite little actress getting ruined in the rain.” With that the girl entered the passenger seat without another word.

The man took that moment to notice Minato standing just out of reach of the rain. “You need a lift too?” On the outside it seemed pretty innocent enough, but Minato heard enough in the past not to enter the car with strangers. The stranger count with this car was two too many.

Minto remained silent for longer then would be considered a polite amount of time to think about a response. He shook his head politely waving off the offer before quickly putting his headphones back on his head. He had a bad feeling about it all and didn’t want to leave it open for the man to insist. If not for the creepy feeling then Minato didn’t want to impose or stand out.

The man didn’t try to insist, instead he turned his head forward again and began to roll up the window. Minato watched as the girl's face began to disappear behind the glass window. Now that she was facing away from the man she looked annoyed, which could’ve been directed at a multitude of things; like the rain, dog insults, or Minato for taking so long to answer. But in the last few moments Minato could see her brown eyes she looked sad looking off into the rain.

The car drove off in the direction of the school leaving Minato to ponder both his life decisions and the sad eyes of the girl he didn’t know the name of.

In that moment wet and speedy footsteps followed the small disappearing hum of the car. A boy with a cap and messy shirt underneath another black uniform jacket had stopped in frustration right where the car once was. The capped boy let out a hushed curse as he tapped his foot anxiously on the puddle filled ground.

“Just missed them!” He let out an annoyed complaint to no one though it was loud enough that Minato could hear even over his music. “That teacher…” He hissed. “I’ll catch that pervy teacher in the act someday.” The other student continued to complain and groan while swinging his bag with a similar force one would use with a baseball bat.

And Minato thought he had irritation issues.

“What’d you say… a pervert teacher?” Minato spoke up for the first time. Though his voice was fairly quiet under the pittering of the rain his phone beeped unnoticed in his hands. What did get noticed was Minato speaking since the capped teen turned to look at Minato.

“Did you see that?” He motioned dramatically to the road as if something truly remarkable had just happened. With the other boy now facing him Minato could get a better look at him, he was wearing a blue dress shirt under the normal Shujin jacket. Despite being a nice shirt in theory the way the boy wore it all messy around the collar and unbuttoned gave the opposite effect. When Minato didn’t respond because he was too busy looking at the other boy’s deep blue dress shirt he spoke up again. “Kamoshida! In that car with the girl. Did you see it?”

Minato really considered saying no. Would saying no spare him of having this conversation that would probably make him even more late to school? Was it worth trying? Yes.

“No.” Minato said with the blankest expression possible as he pulled down his headphones.

The boy gave him a spectacle look. “I just saw you watch it all go down though…” He sighed, slapping his hand lightly to his own forehead. “Oh I get it, you're on his side aren’t cha? Gonna rat me out for playing detective on the star on the stage of Shijin?” Whoever this kid was Minato decided he was dramatic.

Minato was more of an observer than a listener most of the time, he was easily distracted but tried to pick up the most important parts of what people were saying like; “Star? Stage? He the lead role in a theatre play or something?” From the confused face of the second boy Minato could tell he hadn’t hit the dot.

“You don’t know who he is do you?” Minato’s silence answered the question perfectly. “Kamoshida; from Shujin. You have the uniform.” The boy left a long pause as he thought. Then he grinned in some sort of realization that Minato apparently missed.

“Sooooo,” He stretched out the syllable. “You’re a transfer! Been there before.” He slug his arm hard around Minato’s shoulder. Minato quickly shuffled to catch his phone before it was dropped on the water coated ground. “Well if you’re a transfer then it’s no shock you don’t know that perv. Since you’re new I’ll take it upon myself to take you under my wing. I’ll be your wingman, your wingbro.”

Minato was very sure that all of that last part made no sense. 

As the loud boy began to drag Minato along the wet sidewalk asking stupid questions he stopped to bring his hand to his head this time it wasn’t another break through realization. “Ugh my head.” He complained. “If only I could use a headache as an excuse to get out of school.”

It wasn’t super noticeable but Minato had felt the sudden spike as well. It was like his head stopping and starting up again in less then a second. It was more strange than painful though.

Perhaps being around someone annoying and loud spread some sort of brain connected disease. Minato was infected now, looks like it was soon his time to die or maybe he was doomed to a life of bothering poor transfer students he spotted randomly in the rain.

Minato wasn’t being dramatic, all his thoughts were perfectly rational.

Since they were headed in the same direction he had no choice but to follow after the noise boy and put up with the questions and the rain.

…

Minato assumed that the loud student pulling him along knew where he was going. Too distracted by the constant talking that had gone from Minato and his year (turns out they’re in the same year lucky him) to girls and the uselessness of the schooling system, Minato failed to notice the strange flashing his phone had started to give off. He quickly shoved his phone in his pocket to keep from accidentally dropping it. 

Eventually Minato noticed them entering a narrow alleyway he gave the other student a look of questioning. Was this all just some elaborate scheme to rob Minato of the money he didn’t have?

“I know a shortcut.” Grinned the student, if it was an attempt to calm Minato’s nerves it failed. “I can see it now Ace Detective and his small sidekick going into an unknown place and surviving the hardships of high school.”

At one point while Minato trudged through a puddle he flinched. He’d be on edge since they’d entered the alleyway or was it since they both suddenly got that headache? He wasn’t sure but his body felt like it was on fire and it took a lot of effort to keep from pushing away the other student. Minato had dropped the thought that it was the loud unwanted company that was putting him on edge.

But if it wasn’t that what was it?

…

Minato hadn’t noticed when they left the alleyway or when the larger male student had let go of his arm. Only when he heard the other yelp loudly did he look and realize what was in front of him.

The building was looming and at first glance it seemed almost unreal as if it was some sort of mural on a wall. Though it had enough dimension to be real and not a painting. As far as Minato could tell this was definitely a real building. It gave off a cartoonish vibe with bright colors and it’s overly bright titled lights that read; ‘Shujin Theatre’. They flashed obnoxiously over a large listing of what were mostly likely what was showing, it was a pretty long list but there was only one show title in each of the slots from this distance Minato couldn’t and didn't care enough to read the listing.

“Huh? But I was sure this was the right way.” The loud boy looked back into the alleyway and around to see if he’d possibly made a wrong turn. “This is the right place… What’s Shujin Theatre some sort of movie theatre?”

So they were both just as confused then. Minato leaded on the toes of his feet and brought a hand over his forehead to possibly get a better look at the building, the sun, or moon? The sky had taken a strange color and was shining a glaring tint of green on the surroundings. It made it hard to see. “No, it's a drama theatre, see the live actor list.” Minato corrected him and from the blank look that was returned Minato assumed he’d have to elaborate. “Like for acting and stuff. Not movies those are pre-recorded.” Though it was odd that there was only one actor name listed.

The boy shrugged off the discussion, “It doesn’t matter, we should go in and ask. I’ve never heard of there being some theatre here and it says Shujin on that sign.” Before Minato could protest he was already headed inside, Minato followed slowly after but not before signing and slouching just a bit more than usual. 

This was starting to be a long first day.

...

The closer they got the entrance the larger the building became, it was almost like it was swallowing them whole. It was incredibly dark and incredibly empty. There was a large amount of ominous decorations though; masks that looked like they were following the two of them, prop weapons that looked all too real, and signs that repeated the same title of the same showing. The other student continued walking through the large entrance shivering every so often. He seemed to be trying to look brave in front of Minato. Minato on the other hand was surprisingly taking this with a calm demeanor.

Minato watched the shifting walls with interest rather than fear. He was so interested in fact he promptly ran into the back of the capped student when he suddenly stopped. There wasn’t any reaction from the small collision. Instead his and now Minato’s focus was on the large stuffy room they’d ended up in. Purple and black seemed to be the dominating colors in this building. There were what seemed to be ticket booths that had more than enough tickets for the whole city overflowing from the inside. There weren’t any ticket sellers and Minato doubted that there would be any room within the ticket booths to even fit a person without killing them from suffocation and an alarming amount of paper cuts.

Along with the tickets littering the floor from the booth overload lots of fliers also covered the floor. With all the things so perfectly overlapping it almost seemed like it was some large and cheesy carpet rather than trash randomly strewn on top of one another. Other than the larger amount of tickets and fliers the next more eye-catching things were the mannequins, they were shaped into all kinds of dramatic poses on top of small elevated stages in the middle and edges of the room. They looked like actors that had suddenly frozen midact. It was creepy in a strangely pretty way. There was a small moment where Minato thought he saw the inside of a school flash before his eyes.

The boy asked the question that Minato had been thinking quietly himself as well as stating the obvious. “Where is the school? … This is so weird…" The teen rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ve been going to Shujin for a while now I know for sure that it’s here.” He pulled out his phone and tried typing for a bit. “No service.”

Minato felt a sudden and overwhelming sense of dread and regret. “We shouldn’t have entered. I really don’t think-” Minato stopped when he noticed something approaching behind the other teen. Rather than saying anything he simply pointed behind the boy.

The other boy turned so quickly Minato thought the whiplash would cause the baseball cap on the other’s head to come flying off. To Minato’s surprise it didn’t come off. With wide eyes the capped boy almost fell over from the shock. Minato was able to see who was approaching clearly now.

They were what seemed to be a flashy colored person. Their size was largely exaggerated making them even bigger then both teens. The theatre working clothes were violet and dawned feathers in several places just for flare. What was unnerving was one of those average split smiling/frowning drama masks that was on their face. To top it off they were holding a large and very realistic prop sword, though it looked cartoon-like it definitely looked sharp.

“WOW! You scared me!” This was the first time Minato agreed with the loud boy. Not only did that person come from nowhere but they were also super freaky looking. “A-are you a student? I didn't think we had a drama club. That outfit is really… uh colorful?”

As of right on que another larger strangely dressed person matching with the first appeared, this one was sporting a really realistic club that seemed to be covered in blood. But that couldn’t be real blood right? It had to be just a prop.

“Huh, what’s going on?” The capped student took a step back. Now that there were two they were sizing up both the teens. They were already pretty outmatched when there was just one bright colored creep. Those people were huge and had weapons, Minato felt very underdressed and unarmed compared to the masked workers.

The weapon wielding theatre attendees stepped forward and with a closer look at the weapons both Minato and the capped boy came to a realization that maybe those were real weapons and not props.

“Now would probably be a good time to run.” Minato suggested and the boy next to him was already turning to run. One step ahead which was either smart or horrible in the way he was ready to run and leave Minato behind. Minato didn’t figure which it was because before either of them could actually run, more large workers appeared behind them. Just where were they coming from? They hadn’t seen anyone on the way in.

“What’s with these people?” The other boy laughed awkwardly with a strained voice. “How about we calm down. You guys want us to buy tickets? There’s already plenty on the ground-” He leaned down to pick up a ticket from the ground and was knocked down with the blunt handle end of the person’s sword. He held onto the rim of his cap to keep it from falling and cursed. “That hurt, these people really are for real.”

That was when they closed in on the two students. In a deep and distorted voice there was an order; “Take them to the prop room.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Been very excited to post another chapter. I'm sorry the wait is so long. I hope you guys like the changes I'm making, especially to the palaces and their owners. Kamoshida is a different kind of bad now.
> 
> Apparently Ryuji doesn't introduce himself until a while after meeting Akira in 5. I'm doing things differently but in a sort of same way Junpei's name won't be introduced fully until a few chapters from now. Writing him as 'capped boy' is painful. Eventually he'll become Iori and finally Junpei. If you didn't know that boy is Junpei.
> 
> I realize I put Ryoji x Minato in the tags before Ryoji even exists, oops. I added that tag before I even had him in the chapters I was currently writing. I feel bad for anyone who came here for that. But in the latest chapter I made he gets introduced so I promise there'll be shipping eventually.
> 
> I really don't plan on having out of Minato prospective parts like I did with Ikutsuki in this chapter very often. I avoided that with certain parts that do that in 5 on purpose. This is supposed to be from Minato's prospective after all. But in the future when some other characters and villains are introduced it'll be unavoidable.


	4. Act I Part III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Minato passes out a lot the plot.  
> Thanatos and Orpheus anyone? They've always been my favorite personas.

Minato lay asleep. His mind drifted on the edge of consciousness. He saw no prison bars or chains. No blue, only darkness.

“Hey?”

Could that be a stripped dressed boy?

“Hey!”

A butterfly?

“Hey wake up!”

Big nose?

Minato could feel someone nudging him in a rushed panic. There better be a fire somewhere if they're interrupting his sleep, Minato thought. He slowly opened his eyes to see the grey eyes of a familiar capped teen.

The memory of what happened hit Minato like a wave, which was the opposite of a fire. He quickly sat up. No fire, but it was the first day of school. No fire, but Minato had a lot of pain in his head area, maybe from blunt force trauma. No fire, but Minato was apparently entrapped in a strange cage somewhere he didn’t recognize. Minato slowly rose up from the cold floor and had a good look around. Him and his new... friend..? Was this other person really a friend? Minato didn’t know his name but they’d been through a dangerous experience together. Usually in movies that meant they’re friends, apparently for life or something.

“Are you okay?” The capped boy asked, leaning on the golden bars of what Minato now thought resembled more of a bird cage then a cell. Minato still knew well enough what a cell looked like from his dream. Minato brought his hand to his head and nodded in response. Being knocked turned out to be non-beneficial to his headache from before. “This is all so strange… We need to get outta here.” The larger teen was already at the shut door of the cage banging the bars. Of course the door of the cage didn’t yield to just that. “Open up! Ugh, what’s up with this?!” His shouting did even less to open the door unfortunately.

Minato took the opportunity to look around the room they’d ended up in. It was extremely dark aside from one dim spotlight directed on the floored bird cage they were residing in. Along the walls of the large room were piles and piles of random objects. Some were weapons, which Minato and the other boy figured out earlier, were very much real. Most items were old fashioned and kind of cartoon looking. If you could ignore the real weapons like swords, arrows, even an entire catapult, it sort of looked like a really large normal backstage prop room.

Normal until Minato noticed a massly enormous pile that included a lot of detached mannequin limbs and whole bodies. It was uncomfortable how life like some of them looked, the detail was insane. The only thing that ensured Minato they weren’t real people parts was that they were a very pale white and that they were deathly still. This was a room for play props and it looked like the two of them were intended to be the newest additions.

The capped boy gave up abusing the cage door eventually and turned his attention back to Minato. Not before first cursing at the bars for one last good measure to ensure the bars wouldn’t give in from some verbal assault. “What is this? The back of a really messed up theatre? Like a Hollywood level realistic?”

The load crash from a distance and screaming that bled through the walls drew both boys’ attention. Though it wasn’t in Minato’s immediate vision it was definitely nearby. The capped boy shivered with a sense of unfiltered panic. “W-what was that?!” They both moved to the very edge of the cage bars and strained to see through the darkness of the room. Moans continued to echo through the room followed by curdling screams. The capped boy began to panic even more and Minato didn’t blame him, everything about this was so wrong. The larger teen leaned down on his knees and brought his hands to his cap trying to pill it more onto his head then it already was. Unfortunately no matter how much he tugged it wouldn’t go past his ears.

Minato considered offering the other his headphones to block out the sound. Their eyes met and the idea was lost. The boy's eyes had a layer of fear but also a bit of anger. “How the hell are you so calm looking?” Had Minato really looked completely calm this entire time? He hadn’t noticed.

Before Minato could think of a proper answer footsteps echoed through the larger room. Both boys froze, forgetting the earlier question in favor of watching the group approaching their cage.

Two large theatre workers approached the door of the cage, one had a large smiling mask and the other a frowning one. The smiling one spoke first and Minato had to strain to see it in the darkness of the room. “Props that make too much noise need to be silenced.” It spoke in a crooked and inhuman voice. “With the uproar you’ve been making it’s almost enough to disturb the seated audience next door.”

The capped boy let go of the cage bars and went into a defensive stance. It was a change from how fearful he was before but Minato could see him slightly shaking. “Us? Props?”

“Why of course.” The voice was so loud it was almost like it was coming from an enhanced speaker. It hadn’t come from either of the two workers in front of the cage door but Minato couldn’t see who it came from in the darkness.

Suddenly a loud snapping noise followed by a shift in spotlight happened; fast and bright enough to make Minato flinch. It outlined a man with dark curly hair with a familiar square face. Unlike the other 'people' they’d encountered this person didn’t have a mask, but instead their outfit was even more flashy. Within one of his hands rather than some large weapon was a feathered fan. Whoever this was they must run the show, the two theatre workers moved to make room for him and two more flanked behind him.

The strange adult was wearing a long emperor-like purple cape that dramatically dragged behind him on the floor and covered most of his body. On his head was a hat with a feather so large it couldn’t have been from a real bird. Minato was worried about the bird population of Tokyo at this point since this man had so many black and violet feathers all over his body. He looked like a flashy purple and black peacock. Though when the man moved it became clear that the underneath of his outfit wasn’t as nicely put together. It was an unattractive skin colored bodysuit, the way it stuck to the older man’s body was not something Minato ever wanted to see in his life and now there was a possibility it would be one of the last things he’d see.

“I can’t allow some faulty props to ruin the show… no it must go on!” The feather covered man spread his arms dramatically lifting his cape up to reveal even more of the bodysuit Minato didn’t want to see.

The capped teen next to Minato had a different reaction, he seemed less disgusted by the attire and more shocked. “Wait? Kamoshida?” Minato’s head quickly snapped back and forth from the feather covered adult and the capped boy. So he had recognized that face before.

Why was a teacher of Shujin dressed like a large bird? Is this what high class schools run by large companies are like? Minato couldn’t keep his mind from drifting to what kinds of birds his other teachers would be dressed like. A bird school, such a strange thought.

The peacock that was Kamoshida spoke again with a condescending glance at the capped student. “I thought you were my latest prop delivery. To think it was you Iori.” He shook his head in disappointment. “Life had to give me a useless and broken prop.” Kamoshida sighed and placed his hand dramatically to his forehead, he paused unmoving and moved his eyes to Minato almost comically. “But this one is new! Much higher quality than you.” He brought his fan uncomfortably close to touching Minato’s chin through the bars of the cage.

Minato didn’t feel honored by the sort of compliment and the now named Iori didn’t either because he swatted at the man's hand which moved away just in time to avoid getting touched. “Is this some sort of joke?” Iori glared daggers, the fire in the boy’s eyes may have almost been enough to catch all those cheesy feathers on fire. “Stop being an ass and let us out!”

Kamoshida didn’t seem at all pleased by the almost swat of his hand and the ass comment. “That’s no way to speak to your director! Objects shouldn’t be speaking in general.” His angered yelling quickly turned into a more smug tone. “You poor things don’t understand your situation at all huh? How about I show you.” He brought his hand to his smirking face as if he needed to think hard about what he should do now. “We’ve needed corpse props for our next play I'm going to star in and we always use the real deal props.” His eyes slowly scanned over Iori and Minato. “I think it’s time we prep for the play then.” He swung his arm once again and an attending worker opened the cage.

The group entered the small cage holding weapons, both Iori and Minato backed to the farest side of the cage like trapped animals. Iori shuddered with fear and a new found anger. “Stop it..!” His voice began to shake. In a last attempt Iori launched himself at one of the theatre workers, his body met the workers's, which flinched back and landed on its oversized back. “We have to get outta here!”

Minato realized that Iori meant for them to force their way out of the situation. A pretty heroic option yes. But they had no idea where they were or how many of these oversized weapon wielding workers there were. Sure Iori was able to knock down one of them but that was because he’d taken them by surprise with his sudden outlash.

In response to the toppling of his companion another worker hit Iori hard in the gut with the unspiked end of their club. Iori recoiled hard into himself and fell to his knees letting out a trail of pained groans. In that moment Minato panicked slightly, he tried to grab the back end of the attendant to make room for Iori to get through. Iori noticed Minato’s attempt and for a second Minato’s panicked eyes met Iori’s. Minato’s face was still frozen with a blank expression but if Iori looked deep enough he could see the swirls of panicked emotions gathered there. Minato had done so much watching and observing, was he going to be the reason for another person’s death? Iori had been so clear with his emotions so set on escaping but all Minato did was stand around.

Minato felt sick.

“Just go, get out of here. I’ll be fine.” Iori clearly lied through the most pained and forced smile Minato had ever seen. Minato had acted so calm all along to avoid panic and now Iori who at the face of death was trying to look brave for Minato.

The voice of Kamoshida didn’t help Minato’s internal struggle. “Running away, what a heartless friend. Turns out you’re just as useless as Iori here is.” Minato’s heart was torn he didn’t know what to do when-

“He’s not a friend.” For some reason Iori saying that struck a cord with Minato. He was acting all buddy buddy with Minato before. Was this for Minato’s sake? Or maybe Iori would feel better about Minato fleeing for his own safety if he said Minato wasn’t a friend. “Just get out of here. I said I’d be fine.”

Minato didn't move an inch. He stood frozen with his eyes on the broken and pained figure of the other teen who’d wanted to welcome him to Shujin. Kamoshida watched with bored eyes. “Are you too scared to run? I expected a show, this is just boring, not even worth my time.”

Kamoshida turned his attention to Iori silently giving the orders for the workers to take hold of the boy. Iori was almost limp in their arms just barely bothering to hold himself up, much less finding anything within himself to try and fight back. Kamoshida gave a twisted smile before lifting his feathered fan and bringing it down onto Iori’s face. “Take this,” He brought the fan down on Iori again. “An object not even worth my gracing touch.” He continued to beat the capped teen. One particularly hard hit knocked the cap off of Iori’s face and brought the battered teen to the ground. Kamoshida laughed in response, “Is that it? Not even going to put up a proper show for me?”

A smiling masked worker lifted Iori from the scruff of his jacket and tossed him harshly to the ground beneath Kamoshida’s feet. The twisted adult seemed pleased at the suffering yet his patience was waning. “A repetitive show gets boring. Let’s just pull the curtain already.” Kamoshida glanced at one of the weapon wielding workers and fanned himself with boredom. “Just kill him now.”

“Stop it!” Minato interjected before even himself could think it through, he had no plan but he couldn’t just keep watching.

Minato’s shout drew the attention of Kamoshida, the twisted adult looked at Minato with a new found interest. He smiled and began to move towards Minato. Once close enough he leaned into Minato’s personal space. They were face to face and for the first time Minato could see Kamoshida’s glowing yellow eyes and twisted grin up close. The eye’s looked unnatural and shappen with desire. The man’s grin looked even worse up close, wide and creepy. “Oh? You want me to stop mid-show? Do you even know who I am?”

Minato stood his ground, giving Kamoshida a blank uninterested look though his eyes burned with fury. Minato answered a lot of questions with silence and he didn’t planning on making this one any different, if anything he didn’t think Kamoshido deserved an answer.

“That look in your eyes...” Kamoshida’s grin widened to the very edges of his cheeks. He launched his leg into Minato’s gut. The force of the kick knocked Minato into the bars of the cage and onto the ground. “It’s splendid! Real passion, real anger, real pain. I could make a star out of you.” Kamoshida moved his arm causing his cape to dramatically wave behind him in the direction of Iori. The other teen was still laying weakly on the floor barely able to hold himself up to watch what was happening. “Hold him there, we’ll finish the lamer one first then I'll move to my little blue star.” Kamoshida lifted his closed fan to Minato’s chin using it to move Minato’s face up for a better view. “Saving the best for last makes for a much better show.”

Minato began to launch his body at the peacock looking bastard but was caught by some of the workers. Their strength was far too strong for the small teen to put up a proper fight against, that didn’t stop Minato from struggling restlessly in their hold. Kamoshida ignored Minato’s struggle and moved back towards Iori.

If Minato didn’t do something the other teen was going to die. They would both die.

A voice, no two voices echoed in Minato’s head. Words he thought he'd heard before. 

> “What an unjust game. I’d say your chance of winning is slim to none.” 
> 
> “But if we are here now then there must be a way..”

Butterflies whisked around in his blurry vision. There was a flash of light and the butterflies were no more instead a headache stronger than before. Minato was sweating, squirming, and straining in the arms holding him.

> “What’s the matter?”

Minato’s eyes widened, this voice.

> “Are you going to let death take and keep what’s yours?”

Minato searched around wildly.

> “Death awaits him if you don’t act. Death awaits you too.”

Where was this voice coming from? It echoed deeply in his head.

> “Was your choice to live up until now a mistake then?”

Minato shook his head strongly. “No… No it wasn’t a mistake.” 

Iori was lifted from his spot on the ground by his neck and a sword was aimed at his throat, just about to strike. Minato began to writhe even more.

> “Very well… then I will heed your call.”

Who was this voice? It sounded like...

Something within Minato snapped, it caused the boy’s eyes to widen suddenly before he screamed in pain. The pain seemed almost unbearable and no matter how much Minato squirmed it only became more and more apparent within him.

> “It’s even more painful to live isn’t it? Vow to me.”
> 
> “I am thou, thou art I…”
> 
> “Thou who art willing to perform all sacrilegious acts to live and by thine own justice!”

It was almost as if this voice was Minato himself.

> “Call upon my name, release thy song of Death!”

Minato’s head snapped up and he screeched loudly, it began to make sense.

> “Open the doors to Hell itself.”

It all did make sense.

Minato’s eyes darkened, butterfly wings echoed in his ears. Something had indeed opened within his heart. A door that now could never be closed again, more than just power flowed from its depths.

Kamoshida’s voice broke through back into the current time. “Draw the curtain!” He pointed dramatically at Iori.

“I’m serious this time.” Minato’s voice caused Kamoshida to pause and slowly lower his pointed arm. “Stop it!” The shock from Minato’s outburst caused Iori to be dropped and Kamoshida to turn. Iori brought his hands to his knees and began to pant loudly, finally being allowed to breath.

“What was that?” Kamoshida’s eyes glared holes through Minato. “Do you desire the spotlight that badly? Fine then!” Kamoshida indicated with a small movement from his head and a worker approached Minato.

Iori tried to stand but only fell to the ground from pain and exhaustion. Minato no doubt believed the other teen must think Minato crazy for speaking up like that. Kamoshida waved his arm and flipped his cape dramatically, the order to end Minato.

A smiling masked worker lifted its sword high into the air above Minato. 

And Minato jerked his eyes widening, a burst of gusted power pushed back the attackers. Nearly everyone within the small bird cage flinched and struggled to hold themselves up. When it stopped they stared at Minato with defensive stances and confused eyes.

Minato’s hands slowly made their way to his face. There was some sort of object attached. It gave of a burning sensation yet it was ice cold under his fingers. Minato dug his fingers underneath and began to tug, in some sort of surprised panic. At first it wouldn’t come off but with a little more of his struggle it began to come loose in his fingers. The pain it caused was numbing, more prominently something burned within him that was trying to escape through.

It finally began to peel entirely and red liquid began to seep through. Minato realized that it was blood from the overwhelming smell and the metallic taste that stained his tongue. The object came off entirely and within his hands he finally realized what he ripped off was a mask. Minato steadied himself, his hair had fallen within his face, the tips coated and dripping in blood. Slowly he lifted his head and the blue hair fell out of the way of his glowing yellow eyes. He grinned something more smug and wild then Kamoshida could even dream of attempting. Blood turned to blue flames then enveloped his body entirely under the sound of laughter. Kamoshida and his followers backed away and lifted their weapons to the flames. The flames gave way to chains and music that filled the soul with images of death and fear. A coffin lay beneath the dark flames. Contained within Minato smirked, now newly clothed in a suit fitting only of a trickster. Behind him was a dark robotic demon that screeched laughter and deathly calls. With just the spread of Minato’s gloved hands the coffin dissipated into powerful waves that illuminated blue in the dark room and forcefully pushed his enemies back. The theatre workers flew into the walls of the cage with loud bangs. Weapons and bodies hit the floor.

Kamoshida trembled against the wall he was knocked against. Minato gave him a dark grin, the teen seemed to be enjoying the rush to an uncomfortable point. Even Iori looked at what Minato had become with fear filled eyes and his arms raised up. “W-what-” Iori stuttered out.

Minato had lost himself in the moment. His calm and blank demeanor abandoned a while ago and replaced with the unhinged trickster backed by a demon. It was an unearthly sight ripped straight from hell.

> “I am the pillager of hell--- ‘Orpheus’!”

The being titled Orpheus began to flex it’s clawed hands. It indeed looked like something that pillaged its way through hell. Tall and metallic with a large harp on its back. Metallic parts screeched with every movement. It’s blue and white colors clashing with its long red scarf that had woven itself within the flames.

The introduction did nothing to calm or even kill the confusion Iori had in the slightest. In fact he looked even more scared and confused. Iori’s whispered words of shock were left in the air as the demon continued.

> “I am the rebel’s soul that resides within you. Since you burn with the desire I will sing the requiem of your enemies.” 

Minato nodded in understanding. “I don’t want to die.” Which was followed by prideful powerful laughter.

> “Very well.”

Kamoshida pushed himself to his feet and backed away from the hellish sight slowly. “W-who are you?” He asked, beginning to attempt to straighten himself to look tough. “Servants!” He called his brought his workers to their feet. “Kill him before he causes anymore disturbance!” With that command the attendants began to melt and shift into dark shadows on the floor. They writhed hungrily and began to shape themselves into monsters. Kamoshida laughed. “You'll learn the sorts of shows we put on here!” The shadow monsters advanced on Minato they took the form of ice covered creatures with cheerful smiles and deadly claws. Orpheus’ power once again enveloped Minato and the demon spoke once again.

> “If you fear death then turn that fear into power… and then unleash it!”

Minato recognized his metallic mask that reappeared on his face. He brought his hand to it and ripped it off calling to his new found power. “Persona!” Orpheus let out a song equivalent to a war cry. A burst of flame hit the first shadow pushing it down into a gooey heated pile of darkness. Without hesitation the second monster flew towards Minato, who dodged the blow with quick grace. Blue flames formed into a sharp blade that Minato struck through the creature's body. It cut through as if going through water. The frost split into two before dissolving completely.

Orpheus calmed its protective flames.

> “Sing the requiem of your enemies and you'll reach your answer.”

And with that the battle ended. Orpheus dissipated, but Minato was sure he was still there within him. He could feel the power of the persona swimming within his soul. Minato felt great after all that, he felt more than great, in fact it was probably the best and freest he’s felt in his entire life.

Iori from his current expression obviously hadn’t had the same experience Minato did. He was on the floor backed into the very edge of the cage. One arm was in front of him in a very weak form of defense and his other behind him searching for an escape that just wasn’t there. “What…” What at this point had to be the most said word Iori has said in a while. Maybe the whole situation had broken the poor teen and he had devolved into a creature that could only ask the same repetitive question; what.

Minato gave Iori a confused glance from under his mask as if what had just happened was normal and didn’t need to be questioned.

Kamoshida interrupted by getting close into Minato’s personal space. “How dare you-” Before he could finish Iori stood up and hit the man with an aimed swing of his backpack. It took the flashy adult by surprise causing him to fall to the ground. “Arghh!”

Iori grinned with his own form of pride and looked at Minato. “See I can do some stuff too.” Minato wasn’t sure if Iori was trying to be helpful or it was a short outlet of jealousy. Minato didn’t have the time to think about it because the other teen grabbed Minato and pulled him out of the cage. He quickly shut the door locking Kamoshida in.

Iori breathed out a sigh of relief and snapped around to look at Minato. “Hey! How did you do that thing you just did!?” The boy pressed Minato with the question while he attempted to ignore Kamoshida’s monologue of choice curse words. “Plus… your clothes!”

Minato didn’t know the answer to the questions so he responded with a light shrug and as if on a timed que his outfit dissipated into blue flames leaving his normal school uniform behind. It was fun while it lasted, Minato thought.

Kamoshida shoved his body onto the bars of the cage. “You bastards!” Both boys flinched and turned their attention back to the flashily dressed adult. Minato didn’t know how much he was allowed to judge on strange flashing clothing since he just a few seconds ago was in his own trickster outfit.

“This is insane!” Iori basically screamed. “It can’t get any worse.”

And like some cliche book one liner it did in fact get worse. The floor began to shake loudly. With a quick look around the room the source of the shaking had to be the large earlier mentioned pile of mannequins. Body parts were falling some the top and sides of the pile before moving with strange inhuman movements. They squirmed in different directions before deciding in one direction, their destination were more dancing disembodied limbs. They formed together into a large formation of arms and legs sticking out in all directions. A living and horrifying monster of too many limbs to be remotely comfortable.

Even Kamoshida was scared of the abomination which was shown in the very manly way he screamed like a woman and retreated to the opposite end of the cage. From his fear and surprise Minato thought it was safe to assume that whatever this was, it wasn’t something Kamoshida could control like the smaller shadows.

Iori gulped loudly and looked at Minato, his earlier stubborn pride had disappeared in favor of pure fear and nervousness. “You think you could do that thing you did earlier to take care of this one?” He asked in a sweat.

Minato didn’t even need to try in order to know. He couldn’t summon his persona again that soon and even if he did use Orpheus there was no way he’d be able to take whatever that thing was. It was on an entirely new level then Kamoshida’s small follower shadows. Even though the answer was clearly no: “Uh maybe?”

The creature let out a distorted and freakish cry from the mouth it didn’t have. The cry made Minato freeze in place. The feeling was equivalent to complete paralysis everywhere aside from his heart which instead was moving at a million miles pace. “Nonono definitely no.” Minato corrected himself. There was no way.

The creature lashed some of its many arms and probably some of its legs too into the large bird cage. The cage fell on its side from the force and began to roll. Iori and Minato had to throw himself out of the way so they wouldn’t get run over. Kamoshida gave off some more ‘manly’ screams as he was thrown about the cage as it rolled away with him still in it. The cage rolled through a pile of props and then into a wall. Weapons and other assorted objects flew everywhere while the cage continued through more walls out of sight. Unfortunately the large shadow seemed more interested in Minato and Iori than the screaming Kamoshida. The disgusting creature loomed over the two teens. It had an overwhelming amount of power and distortion. It gave off the feeling of hopelessness and death. Minato tried a last ditch effort to try and summon Orpheus but the persona didn’t heed his call.

Nothing happened, the sea within his soul was deadly silent and the shadow approached them.

Minato heard the fluttering of wings and for a moment he thought he saw some flash of yellow. Static played through his ears and for a moment he thought that maybe he’d accidentally left his headphones on or maybe all the collective screaming had damaged his ears. But after a few moments the static stopped and in its place was perfect clarity. There was yelling from Iori and more shadow screaming but Minato didn’t hear any of it and he certainly didn’t see the large attack coming straight for him. Instead he saw visions of yellow wings and fabric.

Orpheus was suddenly in front of him blocking the attack. It’s metallic body creaked in pain from taking the hit head on. Minato wanted to cry out from pain and in despair, Orpheus definitely couldn’t take on something that strong.

Pain split through Minato’s head that hurt way more than the physical block. Orpheus began to writhe in pain. Minato fell to his knees with his hands in his hair, he tugged wildly nearly pulling out handfuls of blue hair. Orpheus’ mouth widened in an unheard cry before hands clawed themselves from its neck feeling around until the persona’s head burst. The headless body shook until it exploded into pieces of lost metal. Something much more menacing and powerful came from within. In comparison to the monstrous shadow which radiated death this thing was Death itself. It gripped and crushed the metal pieces that once made up Orpheus and let out a blood curdling screech. Coffins surrounded it like open wings. Its face had jaws lined with sharp edges. It dawned a sword and sliced through the air with rage.

Minato barely had the time to see the creature that forced its way from his head. Everything was so blurry and for a moment all he saw was a yellow moon and blood soaked surroundings.

Death lunged at the multi-limbed shadow, bringing a clawed hand into its core. With its claw it a large chunk of black goo from the shadow’s insides before slashing the open wound with its sword. With one swing in an instant the shadow was in two. Arms and legs fell from it and squirmed helplessly on the floor. Iori who had just been watching this entire time gapped and jumped away from an arm that landed far too close to hitting him.

The shadow began to melt away, but not before Death grabbed one of its still moving arms and crushed it within its claw. Panting reinvaded the air around the coffin winged monster and it let out one last call before fading, a black mist in its place. Orpheus reappeared from within in the mist. Finally the black mist retreated floating into the air and dispersing in some direction Minato was too dizzy to follow.

Orpheus disappeared back into Minato’s heart and the teen fell to the ground in a tired heap. The fight had caused large damage to the surrounding area. The cage along with Kamoshida was nowhere to be found and several nearby walls had been crushed and bashed through revealing more rooms in the building. A long hallway was revealed in the carnage, the hallway connected to a line of smaller rooms which were now connected by a continuous hole that the cage had most likely caused by rolling through.

Minato didn’t get a good look at it, he was too busy passing out for the second time today.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's nothing better than spending my time reading and responding to comments after hours of suffering through school online and then having to write this late at night. It's a lot of my day just sitting at the computer. I do enjoy creating this plot and working on the characters, life is just hard. All your comments make me smile even just questions or sharing your opinion.
> 
> This chapter was very action packed so there wasn't as much of my usual humor. Writing fighting is the hardest for me since I'm better at humor and character interaction. Please go easy on me.
> 
> Excited for the kinda introduction of a new character next chapter and Junpei's name. I got sick real quick of 'capped boy' and Iori. Just another week and I can finally kick start what I have planned for this. After Yukari joins and some basic plot explanation the story will progress much faster cause I really wanna throw characters like Akihiko and Shinjiro in. I've never really liked Fuuka because of her lack of development and backstory but she's one of the characters I'm most excited for, I have big plans.


	5. Act II Part I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanatos is the personification of death. Seen as an angel that leads the souls of the dead to Hades. He’s become an angel to the lost and damned.

Minato gasped awake from his dream. Though with the lingering feeling of loss and the cold sweat it left with Minato it seemed more geared towards a nightmare.

“Yes… You lost something that day.”

The voice shocked Minato back into realization of where he was. It was the interrogation room and the only presence with Minato was the little boy and his butterfly that haunted him. Minato had been dreaming up until now. Yes, he remembered the deal Pharos was trying to get him to agree to.

“Something terrible was released that day. The birth of a trickster and the starting of the world’s Death.” Pharos’ smiled with understanding eyes, but Minato didn’t think Pharos would ever be able to understand. Not with his childish and twisted innocence. “It hurt and when you chose to live you doomed yourself to even more suffering.”

Minato tried to remember what exactly happened after that point where his dream cut off. He did feel like he lost something from within him that day and Minato could feel that missing from him even now. What had he released? The blue butterfly lingered in the air next to him rather than returning to Pharos. It seemed almost as if it was inspecting and expecting something from Minato.

Pharos noticed Minato’s fruitless attempts to recall and laughed lightly. “Memories are such frail things so easy to lose and taint, yet they have the ability to hurt you worse than death. Will remembering really be better for you? For both of us?” Pharos’ eyes drifted thoughtfully to the wall, he contemplated his own question more than Minato did.

Minato closed his eyes and spoke. “I want to remember.” Pharos’ eyes snapped back to Minato and even though Minato’s eyes were shut he could perfectly imagine the surprise and pain in the child’s expression.

“Remembering that much wasn’t enough to convince you then… I suppose you’ll have to continue to dream until you return to me.” Minato could feel the weight of a butterfly landing softly on his nose.

“My dearest wake up to me and wish for the death I can grant you… wake up…”

* * *

“W a ke u p…....”

“Wa k e up…”

“Wake up!”

And wake up Minato did, to yelling and rough smacks to the shoulders, courtesy of Iori. Who was leaning over Minato’s tired and aching body. Apparently after some trauma the body just needs to pass out for a while. Maybe five minutes to be exact since that was all the time it took for Iori to stop being so scared he couldn’t move and prod Minato back to the world of the current.

Minato let out an extended yawn and swatted Iori’s hand away. “Yeah yeah. I’m up so stop agitating my headache.” He hadn’t yet gotten fully ahold of the situation they were in. They were definitely in danger but not immediately so. Minato wanted to pull the equivalent to five more minutes to being passed.

Iori wasn’t going to give Minato any more time to be passed out on the ground. He took a hold of Minato by the shoulders and pulled him to his feet. Minato wobbled slightly like a baby deer. “Who cares about the headache man! You just had some monster that split into a bigger monster and it killed an even bigger monster!” Iori spread his arms at different lengths to prove his point. “And and and… oh my god we need to get out of here. Kamoshida might come back with more.”

Minato’s eyes had drifted in some off direction. He was having trouble paying attention to Iori, not out of choice like usual though. Something was bothering him since he woke up. But he got the general just, they needed to leave. So he began to walk stepping unphased through some of the dead pools of shadow on the ground. Minato couldn’t see any doors around so he figured the giant hole in the wall was a good start to escaping.

Iori looked after Minato in confusion before running after. “Hey don’t leave me behind! “ He huffed before adding on with his arms crossed. “And don’t look so calm after everything that happened.” He paused and lifted up the broken piece of some piece of furniture giving it a few test swings.

“You know there are several piles of actual weapons right?” Minato stopped walking but didn’t look back while he talked to Iori. Minato was right though, with all the weapons around them the old peg from a broken table proved to be an underwhelming temporary weapon.

Iori let out a loud exaggerated groan. “We’re running, hopefully I won’t need it. Pretty sure those things are too heavy anyways. If we have time maybe next time I’ll look around for a while for the perfect fit.” Though it was probably a joke Minato somehow felt they’d be back. “Now come on.” The capped teen rushed ahead of Minato and through the large cage shaped hole in the wall.

Minato continued behind Iori without looking back.

…

The next room they found themselves seemed to be one in a long string of dressing rooms. There was makeup, costumes, and of course chains and more cages. The normal things you keep in a dressing room.

Iori was already in the middle of the dressing room with his head strained far back as he looked up. Minato was pretty concerned the boy’s cap would fall off if he leaned back any further. From the ceiling an arm hit the ground in front of Minato and he realized why Iori was looking up. There were smaller bird cages then the one they had been kept in attached to the ceiling. Within them were mannequins whose limbs were either missing or about to some off. The worst part was that these ones were moving and even letting out a mix of groans and pleads.

“This is sick. They’re dressed in Shuijin uniforms.” Iori stopped looking up and fitting his cap over the tops of his eyes. Both teens left the question between them silent. If they were alive there wasn’t a way for Minato and Iori to help them. “We should keep looking for an exit.”

Minato nodded and traveled into the next dressing room. The sound of footsteps surprised both boys who quickly ducked down. Back in the prop room workers had begun to gather around in search. They were still searching the prop room so they had sometime before they’d be caught. “Let’s keep going. No distractions.” Minato spoke with a hushed voice. Iori grimaced a bit at how cold Minato’s voice was. It was starting to crawl on him the wrong way just how chill Minato was.

They ran through a couple more dressing rooms that were pretty identical to the first two they went through. Minato noticed that those locked in bird cages above them looked a lot like students but never really reacted to their presence.  The last dressing room of the chain was taken over halfway by the large cage Iori and Minato had been trapped in before. It seemed it finally lost momentum in this dressing room and stopped. Minato noticed that there was a large hole in the cage and Kamoshida was nowhere to be found. That couldn’t be a good sign.

Iori seemed to take note of the missing peacock too. “That bastard, we really need to dip before he shows up again.” Minato completely agreed. The door wouldn’t open when they tried it and turning around wasn’t an option. The shadows they saw from a far were surely searching the past dressing rooms by now. It was only a matter of time before they were caught at this rate.

From the corner of Minato’s eye a yellow butterfly glistened. This one was different from the blue one he’d seen Pharos with. He felt the urge to follow it and when he did something grabbed his arm. A figure that seemed almost ghost-like looked back at Minato from underneath a thick metal jawed helmet. It looked incredibly similar to the creature that ripped itself from Orpheus, but it had a long yellow piece of fabric around its neck. When the figure let go of Minato’s arm he realized how soft its hand was. It felt human, not like the monsters or even a persona.

The ghostly figure brought its finger to its helmet jaw, hushing Minato in the most mysterious way. It pointed its gloved thumb behind itself in an indication to follow. Minato shouldn’t trust whoever this was, he really shouldn’t but there wasn’t any other choice. The figure moved through some clothing racks and gave way to a small open vent.

“Here.” Minato waved to Iori. “There’s a way through here.”

Iori rushed over. “Nice find! We can just fit through here and I’d like to see those large monsters try and fit through here.”

“Well I didn’t find it, it was-” By the time Minato turned back towards the vent the shadowed figure was gone. All that was left was a lingering feeling in Minato’s chest and the empty vent. “Uh nevermind. This might lead outside, I can feel air coming through.”

Minato entered the vent first, he was smaller than Iori so it took Minato a lot less time and no cursing to get through and start going. They both shuffled through the vents with a silence Minato treasured. There was still a raging headache from the last battle and Minato wasn’t in the mood for conversation.

Minato noticed that the feeling of air was getting clearer and he could begin to see the green glow of the sky coming through. He crawled closer and could see small rays of green moonlight coming through the bars of an air vent cover.

Iori stopped just short of running into Minato. “Hey why’d you stop?” He asked with concern. Most of it was from worrying from the chance they’d been discovered by the other part was worrying that it was a dead end and they’d have to crawl backwards. The capped boy wasn’t sure he could even move backwards in the small space.

Minato clicked his tongue and brought his hands to the vent covering and gave it an experimental shove. “I think this is an exit.” Was all Minato said. “Here, move back a little bit.” Minato attempted to shift his body backwards in the vent. He succeeded in twisting his body, placing a hand on Iori’s face and kicking Iori in the shoulder

“What do you think you’re doing!?” Iori protested, lifting his arms up, but without his arms to support him he fell face first to the floor of the vent. His cheek pressed painfully on the metal. Minato and Iori continued to struggle between each other until Minato was finally facing legs towards the vent cover. “All that was for what exactly?” Iori had to fit his cap that was crooked from the hits he’d taken from Minato.

Minato reared his legs back, “This,” and then kicked them hard into the cover. Pain shot through his legs as it hit the metal and didn’t give. “Ouch…” Well if at first you don’t succeed. “I meant this.” Minato kicked the vent cover a second time and fortunately for his legs it gave this time. The cover flew off with a loud crash.

As soon as the two of them left the vent the world began to distort, or it seemed more like that it was undisorting. It was a lot less painful and nauseating then the first time. On the other side they ended up on a normal street near Shujin.

Iori stretched his arms and legs with a loud sigh, his joints cracked. Between peacocks, shadow people, and Minato he really took a lot of hits today. “Did we make it out?”

Minato’s phone beeped and an automated voice spoke. “You have returned to the real world. Welcome back.” Even with that Iori didn’t seem quite convinced.

“We really got away.” Iori said aloud to reassure himself. “We actually got away…” He paused his eyes with surprise. Minato thought he'd have to comfort a shell-shocked child. Minato didn’t do comforting… or children. Minato was horrible with children. “We made it out!” Iori shouted loud enough for Minato to notice over his thoughts and every other person who was walking down the street to also notice.

“Yea and now we’re in the middle of the street.” Minato reminded Iori with a tone more aligned to a warning. Warning towards the possibility of the police questioning them for being a disturbance or if not Minato smacking Iori for being annoying.

But Iori ignored both Minato’s warning and the stares they were getting. He grabbed Minato by the shoulders and began to shake him. “That was…” Horrifying, dangerous, horrifyingly dangerous? “Awesome!”

Not what Minato expected. Iori continued to surprise Minato. “It was like a comic book. We were heroes!” Minato missed the part where they were even a little heroic, maybe he forgot from all the time they spent getting beaten up and running. Iori was vibrating with excitement there really was no stopping him at this point, but Minato had to try-

“Iori-”

“Nah call me Junpei. We’re partners in crime.” Now crime was involved? Was that from them trespassing or did he just make that up?

“Then call me Minato Arisato.” He tilted his head as he spotted two men approaching them. Minato may understand the crime thing now.  Maybe it was because they were skipping school? Minato sure felt like a criminal with two officers now approaching them.

“No way I’ll just call you Minato.” Minato kicked Junpei in the shin. It was hard to tell if it was a warning or retribution for not calling Minato what he told him to. Let’s go it was for both.. “What was that for--- Oh officer hey.” Junpei quickly straightened up. Nothing but the law could stop Junpei.

“What’s with the yelling? Are you two Shujin students?” One of the officers asked with crossed arms. “Cutting classes, huh?” So Minato was right, he really did miss classes on the first day. He didn’t think getting kidnapped by a man in a bird suit was a proper excuse, unfortunately.

“Cutting- no it’s crazy! We were walking to school but instead of school we ended up in a weird theatre.” Junpei started to explain, everything he’s said just keeps making it worse.

“So you were skipping to go to the movies you say.” Yup even worse. “Are you his friend?” The officer asked Minato.

Minato debated saying no, running, or both. That’d really sting to his ‘partner in crime’ though. “Yeah we’re partners in crime.”

“Don’t say that! It makes us seem even more suspicious!”

“But you said we were.”

“Well- yeah I said that but I didn’t really mean it.”

Minato faked a betrayed expression by placing his hand offendedly on his chest. “I can’t believe you.” The officers at this point were just watching Junpei and Minato go back and forth.

The first officer looked at the other, they had a silent conversation before one spoke again. “Just go to school already.”

Minato felt a huge sense of accomplishment that didn’t show on his face and Junpei looked shocked at the efficiency their bickering had at getting the police to lose interest. They must’ve been lucky the officers just don’t care.

School couldn’t have been too far. Junpei remained silent for the last small bit of walk. Reminder of shock from everything that happened or he was just tired out at this point. Minato took the opportunity to put his headphones back on and try to get at least one song in before they got to school.

* * *

Noon.

It was noon by the time they made it to the school gate.

Minato had two thoughts; one he was going to be in trouble for missing the first half of school and two he was hungry. He may have missed the opportunity to get lunch and that was the real tragedy.

Junpei inspected the school as if he expected it to jump at him. “So it’s here now. Even though we went the same way… What exactly is happening?”

“That’s a great question.” A man came from the school doors. Minato guessed that he was the first teacher to lecture them yet. “We received a call from the police.” Both Minato and Junpei winced.

Another betrayal.

The teacher shifted his weight on his right foot and glared over the two of them. His eyes scanned both boys with judging eyes. “So want to share where you’ve been all this time?”

Junpei seemed to learn from his last mistake, but that didn’t mean he gained anymore common sense. “I-in a, uh bird cage?”

“That’s the worst excuse I’ve ever heard from a student.” The teacher shifted once again. Minato wanted to facepalm, instead he reached to turn the volume of his headphones up. His hand paused when he heard another person approaching.

“What’s this about a bird cage?”

Minato could still recognize the man even without the skin tight bodysuit and peacock accessories. Kamoshida came into view from inside the school and glanced over them. He was wearing the well put together suit that he had when he picked up that girl from the street. Minato pulled his headphones down from his head and paused the music.

Iori was the first to react verbally. “Kamoshida!?”

Kamoshida gave a pleasantly horrible smile. “You’re always so carefree Iori. Much different while you were in baseball.” Kamoshida placed his hand on his hip and began to tap the toe of his polished dress shoe on the ground.

“I can't believe he's just here being so causal….” Iori whispered to himself and began to mumble beyond understanding.

The teacher spoke up sharply directed at Junpei. “Don’t mumble! Especially if it’s about Mr. Kamoshida! You’re on some pretty thin ice.” Junpei responded by pulling his cap lower over his face. Minato really respected Junpei’s ability to hold back, Minato would’ve given him every right to slap both the snotty teachers.

“You both may just be expelled.” The unnamed teacher sneered. “You’ll both need to explain yourselves properly.”

Kamoshida watched the scene with playful eyes. This was probably just a show for him, he definitely looked entertained.

“Fine.” Junpei gave Minato a side glance before going ahead. Minato sighed heavily and shoved his hands deep into his pockets. The teacher and Junpei had already entered the building, but Kamoshida strayed back just enough to catch Minato.

“You’re that new transfer student… Minato Arisato?” He gave Minato a good look from top to bottom and placed his hand on his chin. It took some effort not to shiver under his hard stare. “Have we met somewhere?” Minato shook his head as soon as Kamoshida finished asking the question and continued to follow after Junpei and the other teacher.

“Oh that’s right!” Kamoshida speaking again made Minato stop involuntarily. “I saw you near the station. How could I forget such a face. You know you’d make a great addition to some club I overlook… track? ...swimming?”

Minato couldn’t hold back a small shiver. There was no way in hell he was joining any clubs after being told that.

“I’ll let you go this time. But don’t forget one slip up could get you expelled.” Minato didn’t have to look to know he was grinning. Was this some sort of blackmail? “Anyways hurry to the faculty office. Can’t have your new teacher waiting too long. Good luck trying to enjoy school here.” He walked right past Minato and no matter how far the man was it was always way too close to be comfortable. Minato was sure he could send the man to space and he would still get goosebumps. 

* * *

The faculty office quite the amount of stairs and getting lost. Minato was pretty sure he made it to the rooftop by accident before he made it here. He could’ve asked directions yes, but no he didn’t want to. He made it so it didn’t matter and no one gave him any instructions other than: faculty office.

There were several adults within the office so Minato wasn’t really sure which was his. So he stood in the doorway like a lost child as he fiddled with the wires of his headphones. Eventually someone looked up from their papers.

She had messy light brown hair and was weaning a thick yellow colored pullover. She gave a lopsided smile. Then she gasped in realization and stood up instantly. She went for an upset but looked more stressed than anything. “I can’t believe you. Being over half a day late on your first day. Do you have an explanation?” Minato in fact didn’t have an explanation.

But he didn’t even need to make one up because the teacher began to go into a rant. “I haven’t even met you yet, so much for good first impressions.” She sighed. “I didn’t even have the time to read your file fully to think with all my work they’d give me another trouble transfer.” She lifted up a file that had Minato’s name on it. It was good knowing the school kept such nice tabs on its students, Minato noted sarcastically.

Minato glanced at the teachers desk catching her name; Ms. Toriumi and several other things such as her messy work ethic. Toriumi scanned over the flies while she read some things out loud. “2006… that was like ten years ago? Your parents---” She began to look quickly back and forth from Minato to the file. Then she coughed into her arm and continued. “Um… other stuff… aaaand now you’re here!” She slammed the file onto the desk with more force than intended. She flinched from the sound it made and smiled weakly at Minato.

“Well it makes sense you’re late. You were probably lost… and oh the train accident too! Even if you were with Iori...” Toriumi began to make excuses for Minato and she looked at him with such pity. It made Minato sick. “Please try and pull yourself together though. You could get expelled you know. Being expelled is close to your first day.” She brought her hand to her mouth while holding back a small chuckle.

Minato didn’t hear any joke within her statements. When she noticed Minato didn’t laugh she sighed in annoyance and with a large amount of exhaustion. She latched onto another topic quickly. “It’s interesting you’re hanging out with Iori. Just a warning but he’s a little easygoing, he was much better while he was in baseball… but well…” She trailed off as she glanced at the clock.

“Since lunch is almost over you can introduce yourself once class starts again.” She moved to the door of the office and indicated for Minato to follow.

…

In the hall Toriumi fidgeted with her hands in a painful silence. Usually Minato would have enjoyed silence but this was just uncomfortable. Two girls passing them began to whisper.

“Isn’t that him?”

“What? The kid in the rumors..?”

“Yeah! Toriumi’s class huh?”

Toriumi reacted to her name being said, she flinched slightly dropping her arms to her sides. So that’s why she was being so on edge. How much of a trouble it must be for her to have a cursed child like him in her class. Minato dug his hands deeper in his pockets.

  
  


…

“Late on his first day? He really is crazy…”

“Even though he looks normal…”

“Wolf in sheep's clothing then?”

Minato stood in front of the class. He was constantly shifting his weight from foot to foot in a light acting of fidgeting under the looks from the class. They were all looking at him so intently, the floor seemed the better option to keep eye contact with.

Toriumi spoke up against the whispers from the class. “Uh- hey everyone.” She moved to the class podium. “I’d like to introduce the newest transfer student: Minato Arisato. Since he’s new we spent some time getting him used to the school, that’s why he was late.” More of her excuses for Minato and it was clear no one in the class was buying it either. It probably made things even worse in fact.

Silence stretched for a while and Minato assumed he needed to say something to end it before it got any worse.

“Good to see all your teachers aren’t birds.”

The class burst into chatter. Some gave him confused looks while others laughed, Minato deducted that they were laughing at him not with him. Minato wasn’t sure what else he was supposed to say and honestly he still had the bird dressed teacher in his mind. How could he just forget all that just happened and go to school?

Toriumi was amongst the people that didn’t find his bird statement funny. Minato was disappointed she seemed the kind to enjoy jokes. She quickly ushered him to an empty seat that was in the back corner. The seat to the right was empty and the one in front was filled by a girl dressed in an alarming amount of pink. Minato thought he recognized her but everyone around him began to whisper over his thoughts.

“I heard he was cursed.”

“Someone who lived with him commit suicide, scary!”

“I bet he was the one who killed them.”

Minato sunk into his seat and did his best effort to slouch in his seat without completely disappearing under it, though that was pretty tempting right now.

The pink dressed girl huffed and leaned on the fist of her hand. “Will they ever shut up?” She glared at no one specifically. Minato instantly recognized her. She was the girl from near the station. He opened his mouth to say something to her but she gave him a cold look before turning back to the front of the class. Conversation over before it even started.

The whole interaction was enough to get people in the class talking again.

“You see that! He was totally trying to hit on her.”

“That’s a mistake Takeba is Kamoshida’s little idol. He wouldn't let her get close with some loser.”

“Nah don’t worry bout it she’s not even close to girly. She’ll beat him up if he tries again.”

“All that pink and acting for Kamoshida is just to hide how unattractive her personality is.”

Yeesh, Minato thought, these students are ruthless with their rumors. Minato felt bad for the existing he did that caused the students to start talking. They were both right there. But Minato paid more attention to the mention of Kamoshida. What connection did that girl have to Kamoshida and how important was Kamoshida to the school anyways?

Toriumi spent a lot of time trying to silence the students in the class. It seemed she lacked authority in the class, it wasn’t surprising since she was so meek and easily pushed over. But she got enough of the class's attention to be heard from the back of the room where Minato was seated.

“Just a reminder that the club show off fare is in a couple days. Two days to be exact-” Minato had never heard of something like that before. He would stand out even more if he asked what it was so he didn’t bother. Maybe Junpei would end up blabbing about it eventually. Junpei if given the time could probably bring up every topic in existence.  Toriumi cleared her throat. “I hope everyone is ready to show off at the show off.” Even the whispering from the class paused for one excruciating moment. “... cause you know the clubs are showing off… at the show off… club show off.” More silence before the school bell dung.

“Just leave.” She sighed.

…

Minato left the room before anyone else, he made a rush to the door as soon as class was dismissed. He wanted to spare himself of all the gossip and anymore awkward glares from Takeba. When he stepped out of the classroom his view became unclear. He recognized this feeling, it was the same he first came to the theatre. This was confirmed by the small flash of the halls of the theatre replacing the school surroundings.

Minato brought his hand to his head. What was that place anyways and why did Minato want to go back there so badly?

“You okay?” The voice broke Minato out of his dizzy trance. He looked over and saw who the other students called Takeba. Minato was surprised she bothered to ask. No one else would have and she seemed like a pretty cold person to everyone but Kamoshida.

Minato didn’t answer for a while, it was a mix of shook and confusion. He was still out of it from the theatre and his mixed thoughts. Minato shook his head in response and in an attempt to shake off the headache. 

Takeba gave him an annoyed look. “Ugh I mean just be careful okay? Gossip is brutal sometimes.” She brought her hands to the straps of her bag and held onto them tightly. “Don’t listen to any of them.. This might be lost on someone like you though, especially if it turns out what they’re saying is true.” Then she was gone, gone down the steps and off elsewhere.

What she said brought something to mind. How did his classmates know about his past? They didn’t seem to know much or care enough to but they knew enough to start gossip. Who told them? It couldn’t have been Toriumi she was too soft and she hadn’t even read Minato’s files beforehand… but then who did?

Cursed… Yeah that’s exactly what Minato was.

Right on cue someone bumped into his shoulder. Minato felt like all his built up emotion was going to burst out on this idiot when actually looked up and said who said idiot was. “Junpei?” Now would’ve been a great time to say ‘oh no that’s my idiot!’ but Minato wasted that opportunity. “Huh?”

“Rooftop.” Junpei tilted his hat downwards to hide his face. He brushed past Minato after saying that. The whole thing felt like a sketchy drug deal or something and Junpei looked like he was trying to hide his identity. But in reality who else in this school wore a hat? Pretty sure that breaks some school rule like something about disrespecting the flag. It didn’t have to make sense if it allowed teachers to take away the cool fun of hats.

Minato wondered if he should just head home instead. Ikutsuki probably got a call from the school about him being late. Now that Minato thought about it that was incentive not to go home just yet. The rooftop it is.

…

On Minato’s very riveting adventure to the rooftop he was cut off by a conversation about him that blocked his direct path to the stairs. What luck. Though this conversation caught Minato’s attention because it was between Kamoshida and someone else.

“You know you don’t have to take in some homeless puppy into the school.” Kamoshida started placing a hand on his hip. “The student already started hanging out with Iori and seems to have no interest in any clubs. I can’t do anything to help a lost cause you know.”

“Please. You are our school’s star. You don’t even have to affiliate with him, the school has its reasons for taking the student in. We just ask that you keep up your work caring for all the clubs in the school so expertly as you are now.”

Kamoshida smiled from the confidence boost. He didn’t seem to care about insulting Minato any further. “Mhm. I give you my condolences for having to deal with  _ things _ like him. It must be troubling for you.” Minato wondered if either of them knew he was standing just right there.

The conversation ended with basic goodbyes and Minato thanked whatever cruel god made him witness that for having it finally end. How was it that Kamoshida already had such a hate for him? Maybe Minato had bad luck with birds, there was that one time as a kid when a bird stole his hotdog bun. It was pretty traumatizing.

Right, the roof. Junpei was waiting for him.

The highest floor of the building had a door with a sign. The sign said; “School Rooftop Off Limits” which you knew was serious because they decided to cap each word.

Minato didn’t have to even consider, this wasn’t that last rule he was going to break anyway. So he thought screw it.

Let’s break some rules.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yellow? Thanatos? Wonder who that could be? Probably Theodore cause the butterfly.  
> But yeah, I'm sorry the new character was only briefly introduced yet I kept being all excited about it last time. Would you believe me if I said they're important next chapter? Super nervous about it hope you guys will enjoy it.
> 
> Unimportantly I've been so busy with school and other stuff that I didn't write anything this week at all. I have chapters written in advanced just in case something like this happens, but it still makes me nervous about not being able to keep posting consistently in the future. I think I just need more inspiration Genshin Impact came into my life and took all my little free time and inspiration.


	6. Act II Part II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanatos is the personification of death. Seen as an angel that leads the souls of the dead to Hades. He’s become an angel to the lost and damned.

Rule breaking seemed kind of lame

At least right now it did as him and Junpei sat casually on the empty school rooftop. Junpei found himself a chair and had his legs kicked up on a desk. Minato had seated himself on a desk because there were no teachers to tell him not to here.

The music played in Minato’s headphones pretty loudly and it took Junpei to tap him on his shoulder to get his attention. Junpei pointed to his own ears as an indicator for Minato to stop with the music so they could talk.

With sadness of parting, Minato pulled his headphones down. He placed his hands on the desk behind him so he could lean back. “You know that thing you pulled in the hallway looked like some sort of deal. Did you bring the stuff?”

That caught Junpei completely off guard. Minato was the worst person to tell jokes since he just sounded so serious while doing so. Junpei nearly tipped out of his chair as he waved his arms frantically to catch himself from falling. “Wha- no! I don’t do that sort of stuff!”

“Could’ve fooled me.”

“I called you here to talk about what happened! Plus rumors. People told you not to go near me right? But what’s even worse is what’s going around about you. You and I both are like criminal clowns to them.” Minato didn’t want to break it to Junpei that sometimes he really did act like both a criminal and a clown. Junpei continued but with more emotion. “If only they knew! We almost died! It wasn’t a dream yeah?”

Minato shrugged. “Pretty sure it wasn’t, I still feel sore.”

“We have no evidence it happened other than you being sore I guess. So it doesn’t help us in any way.” Junpei sighed and leaned back in his chair. “Even so you saved me then. So thanks bro.” They’ve reached bro status in just one day, a record for Minato since he’s never even reached bro status with anyone before.

Minato needed to come up with a super bro like thing to say back. “Don’t ask me to do it again but no problem.” He was trying his best to be a bro, Junpei didn’t seem to mind at all but Minato didn’t feel very broly.

Junpei grinned. “Nah next time I’ll steal the spotlight and save you from Kamoshida..” He drifted into thought. “There’s rumors about him too you know.” He brought his hand to his chin. “Nothing is done cause he organizes all clubs and gets credit for the success. He enjoys switching students around and sitting around watching them perform poorly or well. It didn’t seem all that unreal seeing him be the owner of some sick theatre.”

Que silence. Minato took the time to reflect on how unbrolike he was. Junpei on the other hand was thinking didn’t have the bro centered mind Minato had.

“Do you think we could go back to that place if we tried?” Junpei wondered out loud. Minato was almost positive in the answer. The word yes was on the tip of his tongue but he didn’t know why he was so sure about this but not on how to be a real bro. Despite having no idea how he got into the theatre or how to get back Minato felt if he tried he could do it again. Minato didn’t have to answer though since Junpei started up again. “No forget it. Maybe it really was a dream. Sorry bro I really need to think about all this.” He stood up and moved towards the roof door.

He stopped and gave Minato one last grin though. “But you know we may just be similar; partners in crime. I never fully introduced myself fully so I’m Junpei Iori. I’ll talk to you later.” Then he left, leaving Minato to an empty roof.

Minato dreaded what came next. Nowhere to go but back to the cafe.

* * *

The walk back and train ride was uneventful.

Minato had tried to drag it on the journey as long as possible before it turned dark. The moon just had to start rising and Minato had to go back to the cafe. He placed his hand on the doorknob of the cafe and just stayed frozen like that for some seconds. Ikutsuki was nice, maybe he’d overlook today because it was Minato’s first. There was no use in trying to put it back any longer he opened the door and prepared to face his fate.

Minato stood in the doorway for a long time with his eyes shut but nothing happened. He was greeted with silence. When he slowly opened his eyes the cafe was completely empty with all the lights off. Huh, Minato must've been too busy being worried to realize no one was actually in the cafe. The sign must’ve said closed but the door was unlocked, not very safe but it was probably so Minato could get in.

In the darkness Minato could spot a paper on the counter, he walked over and inspected it. Definitely from Ikutsuki.

It read: ‘Hey sorry I was too busy today to run the cafe in the evening. Next time you can run it in the evening for me! I’ll teach you the basics. Hope you enjoyed your first day at school! Make any friends? You’ll get used to everything eventually, I believe in you. The road to life is always under construction. :)’ Minato cringed from the motivational quote before continuing to read. At the very bottom of the letter in smaller letters was, ‘PS got a call from the school today. :( Stay out of trouble, won’t lecture you this time but be more careful.’

Minato felt like he got off this time but he didn’t want to push his luck too far with Ikutsuki. He’d been pretty clear how easily it’d be to be kicked out of whatever program the Kirijo put him in. Minato let out a frustrated sigh and crumpled up the paper. He tossed it in a bin on his way up the stairs into the attic.

Homework? Papers in need signing? Nope. Minato launched himself onto his bed. Too tired can’t do anything, not even gonna bother. But rather than passing out Minato stared at the old dust coated ceiling for a while. Everything just sucked or was super weird.

He couldn’t wait to write in his stupid diary about all the weirdness he went through for Ikutsuki to read. He’d probably think Minato was mad. It'd be pretty entertaining to see. Minato would write on it tomorrow maybe on the train ride to school.

Something moved in the corner of his vision. Minato quickly sat up. Was a window left open? He swore he saw the fluttering of a bug just then. Yellow? Was it a bug? “Dumb attic filled with bugs. If you hear me bugs, if you’re gonna stay here at least eat the dust to help me clean.” He grinned. “I’m sooooo busy so you’ll have to hold your own weight and don’t cause any trouble or you’ll the Arisato group will kick you out of the stupid program you’re forced to be in.” 

Yes, mocking adults did help Minato feel better. It helped him sleep at night.

* * *

But it didn’t help his dreams.

Minato let out a heavy breath as he opened his eyes to blue. Back in prison.

A sweet voice greeted him. “Inmate! I missed you. Oh- but my master had news for you.” Pharos…

“So you’ve awakened to your powers and something even deeper. Rehabilitation has really begun.” Igor or big nose. “I don’t expect you to understand all at once. But that persona you know wield will be your weapon against fate and the cards that have been dealt to you. Raise Orpheus well and they may just become something interesting.” The thin man folded his fingers together and stared at Minato with mysterious interest. “Personas are a mask, an armor of the heart used to face worldly matters. I have high expectations for you.”

‘Wait…” Minato spoke with a lot of effort. He felt so weak and small, just speaking took so much energy. “That other thing that came out of me was that also a persona?”

Igor looked at Minato with a glance that said nothing, but did well to unsettle Minato greatly. “What?” Pharos was the one who spoke out. “Something came out of you other than Orpheus? Don’t be silly.” Minato concluded that he wasn’t getting an answer from either. Pharos seemed to be in the dark completely about it and if Igor knew anything he didn’t show it.

“Questions are answered in due time.” Was all Igor said before moving on. “Did you enjoy my gift? The Metaverse Navigator. With it you can travel between reality and Metaverse.” Minato didn’t understand. A gift? “It will do well to guide you to the twelve arcana. Perhaps your friends will achieve this power as well and serve in your aid. In some ways they already have.” Igor’s hand waved over his warden desk and hovered just above a spot. From his cell cage Minato could see twelve oddly colored cards. Great was Igor going to do a magic trick?

One of the twelve cards flipped over and it was too far for Minato to make out what was on the card even when he squinted. Even Pharos stood on his toes in an attempt to get better height to see what was on the card. “This…” Igor lifted the card with some sort of magic, so he really was doing a magic trick, impressive. Minato could make out some man on the card “Is the fool card. You defeated the first unruly card fate has dealt you. But as you can see-” He motioned to the other eleven backside showing cards. “There are still many more to come. As a thief you will conquer each one and rebel against fate's hand. We at the velvet room will assist you.”

Pharos giggled from his spot just outside Minato’s cell door. “This is all for you. I hope you like his gifts.” The blue butterfly that usually accompanied Pharos was settled in his palm. With his other hand Pharos touched its wings. The butterfly fled as soon as it was touched. “Friends… yes, master will help you and your friends.”

Pharos looked up from the blank space where the butterfly once sat and met Minato’s stare. “Can we also be friends I wonder?” His smile was friendly and childish. “It’s time for us to part now. For now goodbye, rest well.” 

Minato’s dreams were quiet again.

* * *

Another strange dream another day of school. The new life of Minato Arisato seemed like a great one so far.

Heart and gifts…. Sounded like a load of bull.

Minato needed to get to school. So no more of this weird dream stuff.

Leaving the cafe was easy since Ikutsuki wasn’t there just yet. Minato didn’t want to face Ikutsuki and have the possibility of yesterday coming up. If Minato had to hear one more thing about him being easily disposable before even fully starting his second day he was going to… well he wasn’t sure what he was going to do. Honestly he’d probably just silently listen and suffer like all emotionally unstable teens that keep their emotions bottled up.

The train ride wasn’t easy, it was packed full of people, Minato couldn’t even reach up to put his headphones on since his arms were pinned to his sides. The trains just got repaired in some areas and still being fixed in others resulted in subway hell. Minato was already pretty ticked but to add on the train was full of talk about the train accident. The accident found every way to force itself into Minato’s morning.

In the end Minato actually made it to school this time and on time. For any other student that wouldn’t have been so impressive but to Minato it was his current life goal and he’d done it. Set the bars low so you could either reach it easily or just as easily trip over it into a spiraling mess. Minato lived by that.

What he didn’t live by was the good student handbook. Such a thing probably existed and Minato was pretty happy to have not read it in his life. Though maybe reading that book would improve his knowledge of ability to study. Now that sounded like bull, knowledge wasn’t going to do a kid like him anything. He dozed through his classes all day to prove that point.Iit earned him a bump on his head from chalk his teacher threw at him with unbelievable accuracy. But other than that the day went smoothly.

Minato would say the second day had been a success.

...

As Minato was leaving class though he saw Takeba get stopped by Kamoshida. Interest took over Minato’s sense of social respect, if he had any to begin with. He wanted to know the amount of truth there was between the rumors between Takeba and Kamoshida. He knew it wasn’t nice to eavesdrop but it also wasn’t nice to lock people in birdcages. So Minato and Kamoshida can be even now.

“Hey Takeba.” Kamoshida smiled brightly. “Need a ride home today? I’m always open to give you rides. Plus it's been pretty dangerous lately. Accidents and delinquents.”

Takeba stopped walking and smiled at Kamoshida. “I can’t today actually, archery club you know? Keeps me busy.” Her voice was overly strained to sound apologetic.

“Well if that’s the cause I could always just cancel the activities for archery today.” His grin made Minato shiver. Could Kamoshida really cancel an entire club for a reason like that? Seemed like a pretty clear abuse of power.

Takeba shook her head a little too quickly. “Oh no, don't do that for me. I need archery to keep up my figure anyways. It’d be too much trouble for you.” She insisted strongly, waving off the idea.

Kamoshida considered his options for a bit. “Well alright but don’t overwork yourself. I know how much you love your bows and arrows. I wouldn’t want to have to move you to another club just because you’re overworking yourself. If that does happen though… I’m thinking swimming club.” That made Takeba stiffen and clench her fist.

“Of course sir. Thank you.”

Kamoshida’s smile grew at Takebaa’s compliance. “Next time we hang out I’ll tell you a little about the school’s history.”

Takeba’s eyes lit up. “Ah- that’d be lovely.” Then she walked away at the fastest pace that isn’t considered running. When she was out of hearing range Kamoshida sneered in frustration and stomped off in another direction.

Minato wasn’t sure what exactly was going on even more now. That whole thing just brought up more questions and thoughts. No wonder there were rumors about the two of them. With nothing left to do he continued down the hall towards the exit of the school. Minato didn’t get jumped by Junpei telling him to go to the roof in the hall again so he assumed he was free to go home. Nice, more sleep time. Minato lifted his headphones onto his ears and prepared to have a nice time just listening to music.

As soon as Minato walked through the school gates Junpei appeared. He had been waiting just outside of the gate so Minato didn’t see him. So much for more sleep or music. He didn’t bother pulling down his headphones but he did turn the music off.

“Oh no.” He said in the most monotone voice. “I’ve been ambushed by a delinquent from the rumors.” Minato placed his one hand in his pocket and shifted his weight to one foot.

“I- No! Don’t joke around like that someone will hear you. Plus aren’t you the delinquent in the rumors?”

“Oh no. The I- delinquent from the rumors- is being ambushed by Junpei Io-”

Junpei hushed Minato and grabbed him by the sleeve, he must already regret telling Minato his full name. Minato allowed himself to be pulled away from the school gates and to the alleyway near it. They had a lot more privacy so Junpei could actually ambush Minato if he wanted. “Stop it with the ambush stuff! I came to talk to you about yesterday not to ambush you. I kept thinking about that place. It was definitely connected to Kamoshida. I’ve been looking for dirt on him for a while. That place is the best lead I’ve found. Since you've become my bro and you were there you gotta help me.” Junpei all but begged. “We could retrace our steps.”

Minato thought Junpei was a pretty chill dude and they were now at bro level so he didn’t mind helping him out. What Minato did mind was walking a bunch. No way he was doing that. “Nah… no retracing steps, too much work.” Minato felt like there was something at the very back of his mind though that was important. “Uh did you check your phone though for places nearby?”

Junpei sighed, he was probably starting to figure how lazy Minato was. “Yeah I did there’s nothing like that here. I even asked around. But… did you? You were using your phone as navigation yesterday right? It even said something when we escaped.”

That’s what Minato had been trying to recall. He felt like he was trying to pull back something from a forgotten dream, but it stayed lodged in the back of his memory. He pulled out his phone and began to scroll through his normal maps app. Junpei got impatient and snatched Minato’s phone.

“Here just let me see real quick.” He tapped around and Minato could only hope Junpei didn’t snoop through his camera roll. It wasn’t that Minato had anything bad or weird in there. It’s just that it was mostly empty. Minato hated pictures, he looked bad whenever other people took some of him and they only brought bad memories. He only kept one photo of his parents and himself when he was ten. Even in that picture his parent’s faces looked blurry, just like in his memories. Minato never went in his own camera roll. “What’s this red app? It’s creepy looking.”

“Oh I don’t know it just sort of lives there now without paying rent. Appeared the other day.” Minato thought for a moment. “Kinda like the bugs in my room…”

Junpei chose to ignore Minato’s strange comments for now in favor of exploring the creepy looking app. He opened the app on Minato’s phone. “I’m. A. Genius!” Junpei held the phone up excitedly. “It’s got the history and navigation. Detective Junpei strikes again. Now to figure out how it works…” He began to tap around on the phone again.

“Wait Junpei maybe we should-”

The app’s voice started to speak through the phone’s speakers and Minato knew it was too late for trying to prep himself mentally for the trip. “Kamoshida… Shujin Academy… Pervert… Theatre… Navigation starting…”

Right back into distortion. The app flashed bright on the phone screen and everything twisted.

Junpei started freaking out from the change letting out a couple of choice curses. The change was pretty quick and before they knew it they were in front of the theatre again. It was just as nightmarish as Minato remembered it.

Junpei needed a moment before he got excited again. “It worked! Minato dude we-” His eyes widened as he glanced at Minato. “You’re clothes they’re- so weird.”

Minato was used to his choice of clothes being insulted but the school uniform was something all students wore, even Junpei wasn’t excused from the pajama pants Shujin made their students wear. Then he looked down and, “Oh yeah I guess they are pretty weird.”

Minato was back in the same outfit he’d been in when he first awoke Orpheus. They were really comfortable despite seeming to be the stuffy and flashy kind of clothing. Minato hadn’t even noticed he changed. He brought his hand to his mask and moved his hand around to look closely at the blue gloves.

“I guess that did happen while we were here. Kinda unfair I don’t get one though.” Junpei kicked the ground with a pout on his face.

“I don’t think you’d look good in this outfit Junpei. You probably wouldn’t fit either.”

Junpei stomped his foot down. “That’s clearly not what I meant! Just saying it’d be nice to have my own cool outfit.” The two were being loud in front of the theatre without any sense of danger. Really wasn’t the best place to be talking about outfit choices. A large worker noticed the two and approached. Minato and Junpei only noticed when it shouted at them.

“You two! What do you think you’re doing loitering around here?” This one was a lot larger than the other two workers Minato was able to defeat with Orphues. It had a huge red glow that emanated power. It wasn’t stronger then the huge limp monster from yesterday but still well out of Minato’s current level. Junpei didn’t seem to get that though.

“Back off us we’ll stand where we like. I’ve got a pretty powerful buddy here so you’d better be afraid!” Junpei was pretty afraid himself but spoke with enough confidence to catch the workers attention. “He took out some of you friends and you don’t even have a weapon like they did.”

The masked face turned towards Minato and sized him up. Minato shrunk under the glare. “Uh Junpei… I don’t think…”

The worker began to melt into a pool of shadow before reforming into some beast. It was a huge mix between a lion, snake, and even a goat? Three heads aside it was huge and scary. Minato staggered a bit backwards and Junpei fell back.

“You can beat that right?” All confidence left Junpei.

Minato brought his hands to his mask. “No definitely not. But hey doesn’t hurt to try and die.” The humor didn’t dent the tense air. Minato had no choice but to fight. He tore the mask off his face.

Orpheus appeared, though barely their form wavered weakly in the air. Minato commanded his persona to prepped a fire attack but a gust of wind broke through the flames and then Orpheus. Minato’s foot hold was lost as he was launched back by the wind. He flew back with a lot of force and slid painfully along the ground. His mask reappeared on his face and Orpheus dissipated.

He looked up and his eyes met teeth and claws. The breath of the chimera was horrible like death and old milk. Minato could throw up from the smell and the fear, he swallowed hard. Did Junpei get blown away too? Would he get away safely? If Minato was going to die he at least hoped Junpei would be okay.

The chimera lifted one lion paw in the air and prepared to strike. Minato blinked in a wince getting ready for death… but it didn’t come. Slowly Minato opened his eyes. The wings of a yellow butterfly fluttered past him and on the ground he could see a silhouette in the shape of a human. The chimera stopped attacking Minato and growled at the figure. Minato looked up to the roof where the shadow was being cast by.

The first thing he noticed about the figure was yellow fabric waving in the wind, next was silver all around the body plated armor and forming in a sharp toothed jaw at the helmet. Underneath the coffin shaped armor was a dark trench coat. White boots and gloves stretched to the very edges of the figures limbs adorned with chains. That was the same figure from before Minato realized. Minato didn’t know how but he could see a smirk under the mask.

The figure jumped from the roof floated through the air above them until it landed on the back of the chimera. There was a large shattering sound as the body surrounded in flames before morphing into a more monstrous version of itself. Minato gulped that looked just like the monster that ripped out of Orpheus, the only difference was the yellow scarf that stayed even in this form. Now the figure didn’t look human at all anymore it summoned a long sword and plunged it into the chimera. Darkness swallowed both the Deathly creature and the beast. There was lion roaring in the darkness before the darkness fell like rain onto the ground in shadow puddles.

The chimera was gone and so was the beast. Instead it reverted back into its less horrifying form and floated just above the puddles, yellow butterfly circling around. Minato squinted through the droplets of darkness and saw that the mask part of the helmet had been ripped off. Underneath was the face of a boy, his eyes shut and face peaceful like he was asleep. The yellow butterfly he’d seen before landed softly on the boy’s nose.

He looked so much like a ghost and on the lips of the sleeping boy Minato swore he heard a whisper:

* * *

“Dearest.”

The world was dark. All save for one boy, one dressed in black and white. Minato half expected to see yellow but no. Instead he saw blue in the form of a butterfly.

Minato’s dream had been interrupted, but it took him some time to realize it had been. It was odd for Minato to be interrupted during a time he was not asleep in dream. The transitions before had been softer, less out of nowhere. Softer was a strange way of saying they had all been when he was knocked out though. The sleep inducing butterfly floated above Minato’s face, its dance was teasing and beautiful. It falanted the fact Minato was now awake and away from the sleep he desired.

Minato deduced that the disappointed and slightly enraged face of Pharos was connected to the reasoning. Pharos struggled to calm himself and had his fists balled up. Minato couldn’t find it in himself to speak up under the conflicted gaze of the child. Minato guessed by now that Pharos was hitching on the rerun ride of Minato’s memories. Even so Pharos seemed so baffled about it all, like it was a reality fake to him. Minato’s reality was rejected to Pharos for reasons Minato couldn’t understand.

“I don’t recall some of this. That distant look...” Pharos’ expression finally settled on a calm smile but Minato could still see his knuckles clenched. If Pharos skin wasn’t already so pale Minato was sure his fist would be white from the blood being cut off. “Even in your dreams… when you’re around me… you’re always thinking about someone else.” Venom filled Pharos’ voice and pierced Minato’s ears. His blue eyes gazed even deeper into Minato.

“Who is that you keep hoping will come? There is no one else for you now but me and death.”

Minato didn’t know for sure he’d only seen up until the point he was cut off from his dream. He couldn’t recall all the details but he knew what Pharos meant. Minato was looking for someone. “I’m looking for a Ghost.” Minato’s response surprised Pharos. Minato could almost feel proud of the shocked and unfiltered expression Pharos gave then.

“I never saw an arcana of a ghost in the cards master dealt you.”

“I don’t even remember any cards. Maybe let me keep remembering and you’ll see.” Minato didn’t feel any remorse for the sarcastic remark. He was only beginning to remember and no anger or offer from Pharos would stop him from wanting to recall.

Pharos didn’t respond verbally, the boy looked like he was containing some sort of fit or protest. But Minato could tell that he was just as curious. In the silence the blue butterfly took upon itself to return to Minato. Pharos made no move to stop it and a small smirk made its way to Minato’s bruised face.

Minato could add ghost boys to the list of weird warnings in his life. He didn’t even know he started a list.

Butterflies

Large noses

Little boys

And now someone who looked like a ghost...

* * *

Too much like a ghost.

But Minato thought just for a split second that maybe he looked more like an angel.

Minato was entranced so much so he didn’t notice Junpei run up beside him.

“WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!” Minato flinched from the yelling right in his ear and the calm armored boy’s eyes suddenly snapped open. Waking up caused the boy to frantally wave his limps and then fall pretty lamely to the puddle covered ground. The frightened butterfly disappeared into the folds of the boy’s yellow scarf.

“Ouch…”

“I-It’s a monster!” Junpei pointed at the boy who looked pretty harmless covered in inky goo and rubbing his hurt butt. “Just like the one from yesterday!”

The boy in question looked around quickly in panic. “Monster where?!”

“You! You’re the monster!”

“ME?!” The boy brought his hands to his chest to feel around as if he was checking for extra limbs or something. “My face is okay though right? That’s my best quality.”

“I-” Junpei paused for a moment as if he was actually considering that, he leaned closer to inspect the boy’s face. “I guess that part is okay actually.”

“Oh thank the gods.”

Minato watched them bicker like idiots for long enough. He stepped towards the strange boy and offered his hand to him. Junpei let out a bunch of protests about the boy being a monster and Minato ignored them. “He doesn’t look like a monster to me.”

With that the strange boy took Minato’s offer. Just as Minato remembered the boy’s hand was soft under the gloves like a human, no claws. As soon as their hands touched Minato felt a jolt. Kinda like being shocked with static. Their eyes for a moment and the mysterious eyes burned into Minato’s memory. Blue but just using the word blue didn’t even begin to explain them. They had depth and twists of blue, they moved like mist with emotion and mystery. Minato’s gray eyes felt outdone. Minato could see slicked jet black hair disappear into the rest of the helmet and just under one of his eyes was a birthmark.

He looked so familiar, of course to the monster that came from Orphues because of the outfit but there was also something else Minato couldn’t just place.

Minato eventually became aware of the extended time they just stayed holding hands. He quickly pulled the boy up and let go. The strange boy looked at him with curiosity in his mysterious eyes. “Thank you.” He smiled before brushing off some of the black goo from his yellow scarf.

Junpei looked back and forth between them like he expected Minato to explode as a side effect from touching the boy. Whatever connection of feelings they shared Junpei was left out of.

When Minato didn’t explode like expected Junpei began to crowd the boy. “You’re just like Minato! You have a demon thing but you didn’t summon it! Are you a demon?”

The strange boy brought a hand to his chin and pondered something. “So your name is Minato.” Well he didn’t listen to Junpei’s question and instead latched onto Minato’s name. Should Minato be flattered? “It’s nice to meet you Minato. I’m Ryoji Mochizuki.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this is super late at night like almost missed my posting date late but I totally forgot with all the work I had. I may need to change the date of posting to every other week rather then every week. 
> 
> I made some later adjustments to better the plot and try and differ it from 5 so if one of the dream segments seem sudden and choppy that's why. If there are mistakes in this chapter its probably because I pushed it out last minute without much editing. I hope you all enjoy it though.
> 
> I didn't respond to comments from last week so I'll try to respond to those along with the ones from this one.
> 
> I realized after I posted last chapter that I used the wrong name for it. It was supposed to be Act II Part I. Each act is supposed to represent a different arcana shadow, there will be 12 in total I'm not sure how many parts will be in each. The first shadow was the fool.  
> I'm so sorry for the mistake I'll try harder next time to check before I post. Though you guys probably didn't notice or care XD


End file.
